Mahavira (redirected from Vardhaman)

Mahavira: see Jainism.

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Mahavira

 orig. Vardhamana

Mahavira enthroned, miniature from the Kalpa-sutra, 15th-century western Indian school; in …

(credit: Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.)

(born traditionally c. 599, Kshatriyakundagrama, India—died traditionally 527 BCE, Pavapuri) Indian reformer of the Jain monastic community, last of the 24 Tirthankaras, or saints, who founded Jainism. Born into the warrior caste, he renounced the world at age 30 for a life of extreme asceticism. He had no possessions, not even rags to cover his body or a bowl for alms or food, and after 12 years he attained kevala, the highest stage of perception. An advocate of nonviolence and vegetarianism, he revived and reorganized Jain doctrine and established rules for its monastic order. His followers made five vows of renunciation (see Jain vrata).