Who is the founder of jainism religion

In what Jains call the 'present age' there have been 24 tirthankaras - although there is little evidence for the existence of most of these. A tirthankara appears in the world to teach the way to moksha, or liberation. A Tirthankar is not an incarnation of the God. He is an ordinary soul that is born as a human and attains the states of a Tirthankar as a result of intense practices of penance, equanimity and meditation. As such, the Tirthankar is not defined as an Avatar god-incarnate but is the ultimate pure developed state of the soul.

Tirthankaras were not founders of any religion, but great omniscient teachers who lived at various times in man's cultural history. They accomplished the highest spiritual goal of existence and then taught their contemporaries the way to reach it by crossing over to the safe shores of spiritual purity. Each new tirthankara preaches the same basic Jain philosophy, but they give the Jain way of life subtly different forms in order to suit the age and the culture in which they teach.

Many forms of plant material, including roots and certain fruits, are also excluded from the Jain diet due to the greater number of living beings they contain owing to the environment in which they develop. Introduction Jainism , religion of India concentrated largely in Gujarat and Rajasthan, in parts of Mumbai formerly Bombay , and in the state of Karnataka Mysore , as well as in the larger cities of the Indian peninsula.

The Jains totaled about 3. Origins Jainism is somewhat similar to Buddhism , of which it was an important rival in India. As do the Buddhists, the Jains deny the divine origin and authority of the Veda and revere certain saints, preachers of Jain doctrine from the remote past, whom they call tirthankaras "prophets or founders of the path".

These saints are liberated souls who were once in bondage but became free, perfect, and blissful through their own efforts; they offer salvation from the ocean of phenomenal existence and the cycle of rebirths. Mahavira is believed to have been the 24th tirthankara. Like adherents to their parent sect, Brahmanism, the Jains admit in practice the institution of caste, perform a group of 16 essential rites, called samskaras, prescribed for the first three varna castes of Hindus, and recognize some of the minor deities of the Hindu pantheon; nevertheless, their religion, like Buddhism, is essentially atheistic.

Fundamental to Jainism is the doctrine of two eternal, coexisting, independent categories known as jiva animate, living soul: the enjoyer and ajiva inanimate, nonliving object: the enjoyed.

Jains believe, moreover, that the actions of mind, speech, and body produce subtle karma infraatomic particles of matter , which become the cause of bondage, and that one must eschew violence to avoid giving hurt to life. The cause of the embodiment of the soul is thought to be karmic matter; one can attain salvation moksha only by freeing the soul of karma through the practice of the three "jewels" of right faith, right knowledge and right conduct.

Differences in Doctrine These principles are common to all, but differences occur in the religious obligations of the monastic orders whose members are called yatis and the laity sravakas. The yatis must observe five great vows panca-mahavrata : refusal to inflict injury ahimsa , truthfulness satya , refusal to steal asteya , sexual restraint brahmacarya , and refusal to accept unnecessary gifts aparigraha. In keeping with the doctrine of nonviolence, they carry the Jainist reverence for animal life to its most extreme lengths; the yati of the Svetambara sect, for example, wears a cloth over his mouth to prevent insects from flying into it and carries a brush to sweep the place on which he is about to sit, to remove any living creature from danger.

The observation of the nonviolent practices of the yatis was a major influence on the philosophy of the Indian nationalist leader Mohandas Gandhi. The secular sravaka, in addition to his observance of religious and moral duties, must engage in the adoration of the saints and of his more pious brethren, the yatis. The two main sects of Jainism, the Digambara space-clad, or naked and the Svetambara white-clad, wearers of white cloth , have produced a vast body of secular and religious literature in the Prakrit and Sanskrit languages.

The art of the Jains, consisting primarily of cave temples elaborately decorated in carved stones and of illustrated manuscripts, usually follows Buddhist models but has a richness and fertility that mark it as one of the peaks of Indian art. Some sects, particularly the Dhundia and the Lunka, which reject the worship of images, were responsible for the destruction of many works of art in the 12th century, and Muslim raids were responsible for the looting of many temples in northern India.

In the 18th century another important sect of Jainism was founded; it exhibited Islamic inspiration in its iconoclasm and rejection of temple worship.

Complex rituals were abandoned in favor of austere places of worship called sthanakas, from which the sect is called Sthanakavasi. Basic Listing of Sites. Fundamentals of Jainism. Introduction to Jainism. Overall view of Jainism. Philosophy of Jainism. Mahavira and Jainism. Pecorino All Rights reserved. Web Surfer's Caveat: These are class notes, intended to comment on readings and amplify class discussion.

They should be read as such. They are not intended for publication or general distribution. Return to: Table of Contents for the Online Textbook. Philosophy of Religion. Chapter 2. The cardinal principles of Jainism are: 1. Ahimsa non-violence 2. Gautama Buddha's mother was a princess from the Koshalan dynasty. Parshvanatha, the 23rd Tirthankara belonged to Banaras. Only 1. Gandhara school of art came into existence in : A.

Hinayana sect. Match the following : A. Hinduism 1. Eight Fold Path B. Jainism 2. Monotheism C. Buddhism 3. Divinity D. Islam 4. Birth of Buddha 1. Bodh Gaya B. Enlightenment 2. Mahavira is said to have fasted to death a practice called salekhana at Pavapure near modern Patna. Jain tradition teaches that the monastic community founded by Mahavira boasted 14, monks and 36, nuns by the time of his death.

An early schism occurred that lasts to the present day over certain aspects of monastic discipline. The Schvetambara sect believed that monks and nuns should wear white robes, whereas the Digambaras believed that monks should wear no clothes. The latter group is also differentiated by its belief that a female cannot attain liberation. The schism was further cemented when the Schvetambaras met in a council to fix the Jain canon of scriptures in c.