MAHAVIRA " the. great.hero"). also called Vira and Vardhamdna, is the 24th or last Jina, or deified saint, of the Jainas (q.v.), described as of a golden com plexion, and having a lion for his symbol. His legendary history is given in the Kalpa Stitra (q.v.) and the Mahavira-Charitra, two works held in great authority by the Jainas. According to these works, Mahavira's first birth occurred at a period infinitely- remote; it was as nayasara, head man of a village, that he first appeared in the country of Vijay-a, sub ject to S'atrumardana. He MIS next born as illarichi, the grandson of the first Jaina saint Rishabha ; he then came to the world of Brahma, was reborn as a worldly-minded Briih man'a, and after several other‘births--each being separated from the other by an interval passed in one of the Jaina heavens, and each period of life extending to many hundreds of thousands of years—he quitted the state of a deity to obtain immortality as a saint, aml was incarnate towards the close of the fourth age (now past), when 75 years and 81 months of it reinained. After he was 30 years of age he renounced worldly pursuits, and departed, amidst the applauses of gods and men, to practice austerities. Finally, he became an Arhat or Jina; and at the age of 72 years, the period of his liberation having arrived, " he resigned his breath)" and his body was burned by Indra and other deities, wbo divided amongst than such parts as were not destroyed by the flames, as the teeth and bones, which they preserved as relics; the ashes of the pile were distributed amongst the assistants: the gods erected a splendid monument on the spot, and then returned to their respective heavens. At what period these events occurred is not stated, but
judging from some of the circumstances narrated, the last Jina expired about 500 years before the Christian em. Other authorities make ihe date of this event about a century snd a half earlier. The works above referred to state, with considerable detail, the eonversious worked by Mahavira. Among the pupils were. Indrabluiti (also called Gau lama, and for this reason, but erroneously, considered as the same with the founder of the Buddhist religion), Agntbliiiti, Vciyubiliiti—all three sons of Vasubliati, a Braliman'a of the Gotama tribe, and others. These converts to Jaina principles are mostly made in the same manner: each comes to the saint prepared to overwhelm him with shame, •when he salutes them mildly, and, as the Jainas hold, solves their metaphysical or religious doubts. Thus Indrablifiti doubts whether there be a living principle or not; Vayubhfiti doubts if life be not body; Man'd'ita has not made up his mind on the sub jects of bondage and liberation; Achalabhratei is skeptical as to the distinction between vice and virtue; and so on. Mahavira removes all their difficulties, and by teaching them the Jaina truth, converts them to the doctrine of his sect. For a summary account of the life of this saint, see H. T. Colebrooke's Miscellaneous Essays, vol. ii. p..213, ff.; 11. H. -Wilson's works, vol. i. p. 291, ff.