Jainism: Non-Violence and Liberation

Jainism traces its origins to a lineage of twenty-four tirthankaras, "ford-makers" or "crossing-makers," enlightened teachers who are understood to have rediscovered and taught the eternal Jain path across successive cosmic ages. The last of these, Mahavira ("Great Hero"), traditionally dated to the sixth century BCE, roughly contemporaneous with the Buddha, though the exact dates remain debated among scholars, is regarded as the tradition's most recent, historically attested founder-reformer, rather than its originator; Jain tradition holds that Mahavira reorganized and revitalized teachings already given by the twenty-third tirthankara, Parshvanatha, a historical figure who may have lived some two centuries earlier. Born a prince in present-day Bihar, Mahavira renounced his princely life at around the age of thirty, undertook roughly twelve years of severe ascetic practice, and attained kevala jnana, complete and perfect omniscient knowledge, beneath a tree near the village of Jrimbhikagrama. He spent the following decades teaching and organizing a fourfold community of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen before attaining final liberation from the cycle of rebirth at Pavapuri, an event Jains commemorate annually during Diwali.