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Pārśvanātha

23rd Tirthankara in Jainism

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According to traditional Jain narratives, he was born to King Aśvasena and Queen Vāmādevī of the Ikshvaku dynasty in the Indian city of Varanasi, 273 years before Mahāvīra, placing him between the 9th and 8th century BCE. Renouncing worldly life, he founded an ascetic community. He was the spiritual successor of the 22nd tīrthaṅkara Neminatha, and is popularly seen as a supreme propagator and reviver of Jainism. Pārśvanātha is said to have attained moksha on Mount Sammeda (Madhuban, Jharkhand), now popular as Parasnath Hill in the Ganges basin, an important Jain pilgrimage site. His iconography is notable for the serpent hood over his head, and his worship often includes Dharaṇendra and Padmāvatī (Jainism's serpent Devtā and Devī).

Texts of the two major Jain sects differ on the teachings of Pārśvanātha and Mahāvīra. The Digambaras believe that there was no difference between the teachings of Pārśvanātha and Mahāvīra. According to the Śvētāmbaras, Mahāvīra expanded Pārśvanātha's first four restraints with his ideas on ahimsa (lit. 'non-violence') and added the fifth monastic vow (celibacy). Pārśvanātha did not require celibacy and allowed monks to wear simple outer garments.

Historical Pārśvanātha

Historicity

Pārśvanātha is the earliest Jaina tīrthaṅkara who is acknowledged by scholars as a likely historical figure. Historians consider that he may have lived between c. 8th to 6th century BCE, founding a proto-Jain ascetic community which was subsequently revived and reformed by Mahāvīra (6th or 5th century BCE).

According to some scholars, Jainism's origin as a distinctive system can be traced to him, although possibly drawing upon earlier existing doctrines. According to Paul Dundas, Jain texts such as section 31 of the Isibhasiyam (a description of his teachings, which may be historical) provide circumstantial evidence that he lived in ancient India. Historians such as Hermann Jacobi have accepted him as a historical figure because his Caturyāma Dharma (Four Vows) are mentioned in Buddhist texts. In the Manorathapurani, a Buddhist commentary on the Anguttara Nikaya, Vappa, the Buddha's uncle, was a follower of Pārśvanātha.The Buddhist book Manorathapurani, mentions the names of many lay men and women as followers of the Parsvanatha tradition and among them is the name of Vappa, the uncle of Gautama Buddha. In fact it is mentioned in the Buddhist literature that Gautama Buddha himself practiced penance according to the Jaina way (probably Parsvanath ascetism) before he propounded his new religion.

There may be a "historical nucleus" within the traditional accounts of his life, although these hagiographic writings are otherwise considered later, legendary, and not historically reliable. The earliest biographical description of his life is from a chapter of the Kalpa Sūtra (traditionally ascribed to sage Bhadrabāhu during 4th-3rd century BCE, but most likely dating from 3rd-2nd century BCE): it is "extremely short in extent and probably modelled on that of Mahāvīra", so as it is of a formulaic and hagiographic nature, "its value as a historical document is somewhat doubtful".

However, some other scholars are more skeptical in their considerations. According to Gough, "the historicity of Pārśva is not, however, firmly established". Gough additionally notes that the stories about Pārśva are rather reflective of the much later historical context when they were written: according to Gough, "since early Jaina biographical accounts of the tīrthaṅkaras were composed in north India around the turn of the first millennium", "there is no evidence that he lived in Varanasi", which more likely reflects the city's status as "an important commercial center of north India in the early centuries of the Common Era", i.e., "the time periods when monks composed and developed these stories." However other historian already rejected this theory like Kuiper who clearly states that "The first Jain figure for whom there is reasonable historical evidence is Parshvanatha (or Parshva), a renunciant teacher who have lived in the 8th-7th century BC and founded a community based upon the abandonment of worldly concerns. Jain tradition regards him as the 23rd Tirthankara (literally, "Ford-maker," i.e., one who leads the way across the stream of rebirths to salvation) of the current age (kalpa)".

Doubts about Pārśvanātha's historicity are also supported by the oldest Jaina texts, which present Mahāvīra with sporadic mentions of ancient ascetics and teachers without specific names (such as sections 1.4.1 and 1.6.3 of the Acaranga Sutra). The earliest layer of Jaina literature on cosmology and universal history pivots around two jinas: the Adinatha (Rishabhanatha) and Mahāvīra. Stories of Pārśvanātha and Neminatha appear in later Jaina texts, with the Kalpa Sūtra the first known text. However, these texts present the tīrthaṅkaras with unusual, non-human physical dimensions; the characters lack individuality or depth, and the brief descriptions of the tīrthaṅkaras are largely modelled on Mahāvīra. The Kalpa Sūtra is the most ancient known Jaina text with the 24 tirthankar, but it lists 20; three, including Pārśvanātha, have brief descriptions compared with Mahāvīra.

Archaeology and inscriptions

Early archaeological finds, such as the statues and reliefs near Mathura, lack iconography such as lions and serpents. Two of the early bronze images of Pārśvanātha can be found on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya and Patna Museum dating back to the second century BCE to the first century CE. A first century BCE Ayagapata is in State Museum Lucknow containing the image of Pārśvanātha. A seventh century CE statue was found in the Asthal Bohar village of Rohtak, Haryana. Kankali tila image of headless Parsvanatha is dated from 100 BCE to 75 BCE.

Relation with Mahāvīra

Pārśvanātha's biography with Jaina texts says that he preceded Mahāvīra by 273 years and that he lived 100 years. Mahāvīra is dated to c. 599 – c. 527 BCE in the Jaina tradition, and Pārśvanātha is dated to c. 872 – c. 772 BCE. According to Dundas, historians outside the Jaina tradition date Mahāvīra as contemporaneous with the Buddha in the 5th century BCE which, based on the 273-year gap, would date Pārśvanātha to the 8th or 7th century BCE.

Section 2.15 of the Ācārāṅga Sūtra says that Mahāvīra's parents (Triśalā and Siddhārtha) were lay devotees of Pārśvanātha, which "has led to the widespread scholarly conclusion that Mahāvīra must have renounced within Pārśva's ascetic lineage." Despite the generally accepted historicity of Pārśva, some historical claims such as the link between him and Mahāvīra, whether Mahāvīra renounced in the ascetic tradition of Pārśvanātha, and other biographical details have led to different scholarly conclusions. Dundas further states, "It is impossible to be certain about the relationship between Mahāvīra and Pārśva and in actuality the chronological distance between the two teachers may have been much less than two and a half centuries."

Long points out "some scholars have suggested that Pārśvanātha and Mahāvīra were actually closer in time than the tradition claims", referring to studies by Madhusudan Dhaky—who has identified certain Jaina texts containing wording which implies that not so many years had elapsed between the two, leading Dhaky to suggest "Pārśva could not have started his ascetic career before the beginning of the sixth century BC" and "may have passed away only a few decades before Vardhamāna [i.e., Mahāvīra] had started his preaching career". In Jaina tradition, Pārśva is said to have visited some cities which, according to archaeological and historical evidence, first came to prominence during India's Second Urbanisation period, in the 7th–6th century BCE.

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