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Mahavira
महावीर
The twenty-fourth Tirthankara — the great hero of ahimsa
Years
c. 6th – 5th c. BCE
Known as
Vardhamana — the twenty-fourth Tirthankara
Birthplace
Vaishali, Bihar
Field
Saints & Sages
“Non-violence is the highest religion — ahimsa paramo dharma.”
— Mahavira
The Story
Born Vardhamana into a royal family of Vaishali, he was named Mahavira — the great hero — for his extraordinary strength and brilliance. At thirty, after the death of his parents, he renounced the world, giving away his wealth and his clothes, and began twelve and a half years of the most intense asceticism.
He stood and walked in silence, enduring heat and cold, pain and insult, harming not even an ant. His meditation was so complete that it was said even the air was gentle around him. At forty-two, sitting under a sal tree, he attained kevala — perfect knowledge — and spent the next thirty years teaching the path of total non-violence.
His philosophy is the strictest in the world: non-violence in thought, word, and deed toward all creatures, truthfulness, non-stealing, celibacy, and non-attachment. He organised his followers into monks and nuns, and his order survives today as the Jain community — the living embodiment of ahimsa.
Core Ideas
Ahimsa Paramo Dharma
Non-violence is the highest religion.
The Twenty-Fourth Tirthankara
The last of the great ford-makers of Jainism.
The Great Renunciation
He gave up even his clothing.
Kevala
Perfect knowledge, attained after twelve years.
The Five Vows
Ahimsa, truth, non-stealing, celibacy, non-attachment.
Why it matters today
Mahavira's birthday, Mahavir Jayanti, is a national holiday, and his ahimsa influenced everyone from Gandhi to modern animal-rights movements. His is the most uncompromising voice for peace in the world's religions.