The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c18.14

v1.c18.14

This Pārçva is assumed, on the authority of Professor Jacobi and others, to have been an historical personage and the real founder of Jain religion. As he is said to have died 250 years before the death of Mahāvīra, he may probably have lived in the eighth century B.C. Professor Jacobi seems to regard this date as not improbable, since some centuries must have elapsed between his time and the appearance of the last Jain prophet². But, as we have not a single certain date in Indian history before the time of Buddha, it is evidently impossible to prove this. Almost as scanty is our knowledge of the life and teaching of Pārçva, in spite of the large body of literature which has clustered around his name. In the well-known Kalpasūtra of the Jains, which is stated to have been written by the pontiff Bhadrabāhu (perhaps somewhat before 300 b.c.), we have in the chapter called ‘The life of the Jinas’ a short account of the life of Pārçva; but, as it is written in a purely formal style and bears too much resemblance to other records of the same sort, its value as an historical document is somewhat doubtful. However, it states that Pārçva, like all *tīrthakaras*, was a Kshatriya, a member of the second caste, that of the warriors or nobility according to Brāhman law, and son of king Açvasena of Benares and his wife Vāmā. No such person as Açvasena is known from Brāhman records to have existed: the only individual of that name mentioned in the epic literature was a king of the snakes (*nāga*), and he cannot in any way be connected with the father of the Jain prophet. Pārçva, who is always titled *purisādānīyā*, which may mean either ‘the people’s favourite’¹ or ‘the man of high birth,’ lived for thirty years in great splendour and happiness as a householder, and then, leaving all his wealth, became an ascetic. After 84 days of intense meditation he reached the perfect knowledge of a prophet, and from that time he lived for about 70 years in the state of most exalted perfection and saintship, and reached his final liberation, *nirvāṇa*, on the top of mount Sammeta surrounded by his followers.