Life in Ancient India as Depicted in the Jain Canons, with Commentaries: An Administrative, Economic, Social and Geographical Survey c21.1

c21.1

1 It is admitted now that the history of Jainism begins from the advent of Pārśvanātha and not from Mahāvīra as was popularly supposed by scholars. Pārśva was a powerful religious teacher who flourished towards the end of the ninth century B.C., 250 years before Mahāvīra. It was he who for the first time founded the four orders in the Jain community.