Vardhamana Mahavira (599 BC-527 BC), called the Jina, was an Indian ascetic philosopher and the principal founder of Jainism--one of the major religions of the Indian subcontinent.

Vardhamana Mahavira was born in northern India during the turbulent religious and political upheavals of the middle of the 1st millennium B.C. He was a contemporary of the Buddha, and in many respects their lives are similar. Mahavira's father was chief of the Jnatrika clan, an indigenous oligarchical tribe. Mahavira's tribal affiliation is reflected in one of his later epithets, Nigantha Nataputta, which means literally "the naked ascetic of the Jnatrika clan."

Despite his royal upbringing, his religious sensibilities drove Mahavira inexorably to renounce his worldly ties at the age of 30 and embark on a search for ultimate spiritual truth. Traditional religious practices were centered in an archaic magical and sacrificial cult dominated by a hereditary priestly elite. But for Mahavira...