Many scholars believe that Mahavira was born about 699 BCE. And that he and Gautama Buddha were contemporaries. Jainism and Buddhism both originated in Vaishali. Mahavira and Buddha both lived ...

Professor Sunil Khilnani presents the first of four audio portraits of figures who have shaped the arc of Indian history: the Buddha, Mahavira Jain, Kautilya and Ashoka. Show more An omnibus ...

Jainism and Buddhism texts offer some clues. A Buddhist scripture, the Samannaphala Sutta, refers to Mahavira as a Sramana leader, demonstrating that Buddha was aware of him. The Sramanas were ...

India’s oldest living city, Varanasi, is a timeless tapestry of faith, tradition, and ancient wisdom. But beyond the sacred ...

The experience of physically travelling on the path the Buddha and Mahavira trod is extraordinary, indefinable. My trip to Bodh Gaya begins at the Delhi airport, much to my surprise. I am glancing ...

While the practices Gautama followed like fasting, shunning clothes, meditating and torturing his body are similar to those that Jain monks follow, and Mahavira was an older contemporary of ...

Buddhism and Jainism grew out of this. Both Mahavira and Siddhartha preached non-violence and casteless societies; yet both did not claim that they were breaking away from the Aryan tradition.

Mahavira was a re-discoverer of Jainism rather than its founder. The ascetic culture, which gave rise to Jainism and Buddhism, had started developing in north India from the eighth century BCE.