MAHĀVĪRA

MAHĀVĪRA . Among the numerous philosophers and religious teachers who preached in eastern India during the sixth century bce was the Jina ("conqueror"), considered to be the founder and systematizer of Jainism. The name given to him by his parents was Vardhamāna ("prospering"), for soon after his conception, it is said, things began to flourish and prosper for him and for those around him. The gods called him Mahāvīra ("great hero"), because, they claimed, "he stands fast in the midst of dangers and fears" (Jinacaritra 108). He is regarded as the twenty-fourth tīrthaṃkara ("fordmaker") or prophet, and the reformer of Jainism. Mahāvīra's symbol is the lion; like other tīrthaṃkara s, he is sometimes represented with his two guardian deities.

Hagiography

The main episodes of Mahāvīra's life and religious career are often described in Jain literature and are prominent in the Śvetāmbara canon. The five principal "auspicious moments" of his life—his conception, birth, renunciation, enlightenment, and passing into nirvāṇa— are celebrated by his followers to this day.

According to the Jains, Mahāvīra was born seventy-five years and eight and a half months before the end of the fourth descending period of the current avasarpiṇī era (or 599 bce); by the calculations of Western scholars, the event probably took place at least some fifty years later. He was born in Kuṇḍagrāma, apparently a village near Vaiśālī, to the north of modern-day Patna in northern Bihar—where a Mahāvīra memorial has been erected and where the Research Institute of Prakrit, Ahiṃsā, and Jainology was founded by the government of Bihar in 1956.

Like all tīrthaṃkara s, Vardhamāna was alleged to have come from a princely family; the Jains hold that he had a kṣatriya lineage and that his mother, Triśalā, was closely related to the Vaiśālī ruler. The Śvetāmbara scriptures and miniatures even show the transplantation of his embryo, following Indra's orders, from the womb of a brahman mother, Devānandā, into that of Triśalā. This episode, which is reminiscent of the Kṛṣṇa legend, is rejected by the Digambaras. As will be seen, the two churches disagree on certain points in the biography of the twenty-fourth tīrthaṃkara. Both agree, however, that his conception was foretold to his mother in a series of fourteen (or sixteen) auspicious dreams by a white elephant, a white bull, a lion, the goddess Śrī, the full moon, the rising sun, an ocean of milk, and so forth. These dreams are frequently described in the literature and represented in manuscripts and in temples.

While still in the womb Vardhamāna began to practice ahiṃsā: He was careful not to cause his mother any pain, and even vowed not to renounce the world before his parents' death. His birth was the occasion of universal rejoicing and liberality. As a boy he received a princely education and his family appears to have followed the doctrine of the twenty-third tīrthaṃkara, Pārśva, whose teachings Mahāvīra was to reconsider and complete, but not, apparently, to oppose. According to the Śvetāmbaras he married the princess Yaśodā, who gave birth to a daughter; their daughter's husband was later to start the first schism of Jainism. The Digambaras, however, consider that Vardhamāna had no such worldly ties. They emphasize that Mahāvīra was one of an unending succession of tīrthaṃkara s: His earlier births are linked with Ṛṣabha (through one of the latter's grandsons), while one of his disciples, King Śreṇika Bimbisāra, will be reborn as the first tīrthaṃkara of the next utsarpiṇī age.

By the time Vardhamāna was thirty years old his parents had died. Having gained the consent of his elder brother he distributed his property, plucked out his hair, and renounced the world; this is an event commonly depicted in Jain iconography, with Indra devotedly receiving the saint's hair in his hands. Thereafter, Mahāvīra led the hard, solitary life of a wandering ascetic (śramaṇa ), begging for food and shelter, moving from place to place (except during the four months of the rainy season) in the eastern region of the Ganges Valley. According to the Digambaras, Mahāvīra immediately abandoned clothing as well as ornaments, whereas the Śvetāmbaras hold that this occurred only after thirteen months of renunciation. Such discussions again reflect a difference of opinion, in this case concerning the importance of nakedness in the holy life.

Both sects do agree that the prophet shunned all violence to living beings, took nothing that was not explicitly given to him, spoke no lies, strictly avoided unchaste behavior in thought, word, and deed, and had no possessions—in short, he followed what were to become the five major vows of the Jain monk. Moreover, he endured severe hardships (due to nature, animal, and humanity) and practiced systematic penances that involved many kinds of prolonged and complicated fasts, "exerting himself," according to the Jinacaritra (119), "for the suppression of the defilement of karman." He gained disciples, with whom he conversed in a Prakrit language. In this way he spent twelve years, six months, and fifteen days on the mendicant's path. Finally, on a summer night, near a sal tree on the bank of the river Ṛjupālikā, he attained omniscience (kevala-jñāna ), "which is infinite, supreme, unobstructed, unimpeded, and full.… He knew and saw all conditions of all living beings in the world—what they thought, spoke, or did at any moment" (Jinacaritra 120–121). He had in fact acquired full knowledge of the world (and the nonworld), and of the past, present, and future of its inhabitants, whether divine, infernal, animal, or human. Concerning the state of enlightenment there are again differences between the Śvetāmbaras, who consider that even a kevalin eats and complies with constraints of the body without any defilement, and the Digambaras, who believe that following enlightenment one is free from all human imperfections (such as hunger) and only sits in perfect omniscience while a divine sound emanates from his person and instructs his hearers, directly or otherwise.

After attaining omniscience Mahāvīra preached the truth to immense assemblies of listeners and successfully organized the fourfold Jain community of monks, nuns, male laity, and female laity. He was assisted in this task by eleven gaṇadhara s (chiefs of religious communities): The first chief was Indrabhūti Gautama, who is responsible for having retained and handed down Mahāvīra's teachings. One of Mahāvīra's earlier disciples was Gośāla, who turned against him to become head of the Ᾱjīvika sect.

Finally, at the age of seventy-two, sitting "single and alone …, reciting the fifty-five lectures that detail the results of karman, " Mahāvīra passed into nirvāṇa. According to tradition, this occurred in the town of Papa, near Patna, toward the end of the monsoon in the year 527 bce. This year was to become the starting point of the era known as the Vīra Saṃvat; nevertheless, Western scholars tend to place Mahāvīra's death in 467 or 477–476 bce, or even later. Be that as it may, at that time (which was a fast-day) the neighboring kings "instituted an illumination.… For they said: 'Since the spiritual light is gone, let us make a material illumination'" (Jinacaritra 128). As it happened, this homage coincided with the Hindu festival of Dīvālī, so that Hindus and Jains simultaneously conduct these two different celebrations.

MahĀvĪra's Teachings

Although the various discrepancies between the Digambara and Śvetāmbara accounts of Mahāvīra's career naturally imply doctrinal differences, the fundamental tenets upheld by the two churches are, nonetheless, basically similar, and can be regarded as deriving from Mahāvīra. Mahāvīra defined a pluralist substantialism that, typical of Jainism, is characterized by seven (or nine) tattva s (principles).

The first tattva is the soul or "life" (jīva) ; it is immaterial, eternal, characterized by consciousness, and capable of cognition. The tattva s serve to explain the mechanism of transmigration, the innumerable reincarnations of the soul, and the soul's final liberation. In this context Mahāvīra explained jīva and its opposite, ajīva; the influx of karmic matter into the soul; bondage; stoppage of karmic influx; expulsion of previously accumulated karmic matter; and the final accomplishment of "perfection" (siddhi), when karmic matter has been exhausted and the jīva has regained its pure spiritual nature.

This ultimate goal cannot be attained except by those who tread "the ford" that Mahāvīra built to the other shore of saṃsāra. They must train themselves to follow the ideal pattern of life, which has been set by the Jina, and they must master the "three jewels" of right (Jain) faith, right knowledge, and right conduct; "right conduct" necessitates performing the difficult and constant ascetic exercises that were undertaken by the Jina himself. As a consequence, from the beginning great importance has been attached to religious life and to the organization of the community, in which the female devotees seem to have been particularly active and numerous. According to the Jinacaritra (134–137), "the Venerable Ascetic Mahāvīra had an excellent community of 14,000 śramaṇa s with Indrabhūti at their head; 36,000 nuns with Candanā at their head; 159,000 lay votaries with Śaṅkhaśataka at their head; 318,000 female lay votaries with Sulasā and Revatī at their head.…"

MahĀvĪra's Significance in the Indian Tradition

It cannot be denied that in the traditional biography of Mahāvīra some episodes are stereotypes that systematically serve elsewhere to describe the career of other "great men" (mahāpuruṣas ). Additionally, there are many discrepancies concerning the date and place of his birth, his nirvāṇa, and so forth. Nevertheless, there is no reason to doubt the historicity of this vigorous original thinker and extremely capable organizer. While naturally accepting many of the basic assumptions of his society and his era, he was one of the first to oppose the Brahmanic ritualistic orthodoxy and to suceed in building a coherent system aimed at explaining the laws of the universe and the place of humankind therein, thus clearly linking metaphysics with ethics and speculation with social organization.

It has been justly emphasized that Jainism (like early Buddhism) integrated many older beliefs and practices that had previously been nurtured only by isolated Brahmanic ascetics. With Mahāvīra, these ideas appear to have gained in influence. Jainism has thus been equated with some of the most typically Indian tendencies and ideals; indeed, Jainism did much to enrich Indian ideals of spirituality. Among its contributions are the belief in the powers of asceticism, in the spiritual benefit to be derived from fasting (even unto death), and in the absolute necessity of avoiding injury to life (ahiṃsā ), whether in thought, word, or deed. This last ideal constitutes the first vow of the Jains, which is a dedication to tolerance, unabated benevolence, and vegetarianism.

The Jain movement probably owes much of its influence to the missionary zeal and gifts of Mahāvīra, and to his ability to organize a coherent society of religious and lay believers. The well-structured Jain community of monks and nuns was, together with the Buddhist saṃgha, one of the first to exist in India. In the course of time it proved to be remarkably dynamic, capable of continuing Mahāvīra's action, and even, as he himself is alleged to have done, of gaining the sympathy and support of many rulers. Following his path and the example he had set, Jain nirgrantha s (religious mendicants) as well as laypersons have achieved the material as well as the spiritual glory of Jainism.

See Also

Ahiṃsā; Ᾱjīvikas; Gośāla; Jainism; Mokṣa; Tīrthaṃkaras.

Bibliography

All standard books on Jainism discuss the life of Mahāvīra. The Digambara views are clearly presented in Padmanabh S. Jaini's The Jaina Path of Purification (Berkeley, Calif., 1979). Two valuable books are Bimala Churn Law's Mahāvīra: His Life and Teachings (London, 1937) and Hiralal Jain and A. N. Upadhye's Mahāvīra: His Times and His Philosophy of Life (New Delhi, 1974).

Two important Śvetāmbara canonical texts tell the story of Mahāvīra's life: One text is included in the first book of the canon (Ᾱcārāṅga Sūtra 1.8); the other forms a major part of the Jinacaritra (Lives of the Jinas), edited in 1882 and 1879 respectively by Hermann Jacobi, and translated from Prakrit into English by Jacobi in volume 1 of Jaina Sûtras, "Sacred Books of the East," vol. 22 (1884; reprint, Delhi, 1964). The teachings of Mahāvīra are somewhat discursively presented in other canonical books, among them the Sūtrakṛtāṅga and Uttarādhyayana, also translated by Hermann Jacobi, in volume 2 of Jaina Sūtras, "Sacred Books of the East," vol. 45 (1895; reprint Delhi, 1964).

Comparisons between the Buddha and the Jina have been attempted by Ernst Leumann in Buddha und Mahāvīra, die beiden indischen Religionsstifter (Munich, 1921). Mahāvīra's career is the subject of a number of Jain quasi-epic poems from both the Digambara and Śvetāmbara traditions, and an important chapter in the Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacaritra, translated by Helen M. Johnson as Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacaritra, or The Lives of Sixty-Three Illustrious Persons by Hemacandra, "Gaekwad's Oriental Series," vols. 51, 77, 108, 125, 139, and 140 (Baroda, 1931–1962).

Colette Caillat (1987)