section_path: History/Ancient
section_name: Ancient
paragraph_text: Ancient
  
  Jainism is an ancient Indian religion of obscure origins. Jains claim it to be eternal, and consider the first tirthankara Rishabhanatha as the reinforcer of Jain Dharma in the current time cycle. It is one of the Śramaṇa traditions of ancient India, those that rejected the Vedas, and according to the twentieth-century scholar of comparative religion Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Jainism was in existence before the Vedas were composed.
  
  The historicity of first twenty two tirthankaras is not determined yet. The 23rd Tirthankara, Parshvanatha, was a historical being, dated by the Jain tradition to the ninth century BCE; historians date him to the eighth or seventh century BCE. Mahāvīra is considered a contemporary of the Buddha, in around the sixth century BCE. The interaction between the two religions began with the Buddha; later, they competed for followers and the merchant trade networks that sustained them. Buddhist and Jain texts sometimes have the same or similar titles but present different doctrines.
  
  Kings Bimbisara (c. 558 –491 BCE), Ajatashatru (c. 492 –460 BCE), and Udayin (c. 460 –440 BCE) of the Haryanka dynasty were patrons of Jainism. Jain tradition states that Chandragupta Maurya (322–298 BCE), the founder of the Mauryan Empire and grandfather of Ashoka, became a monk and disciple of Jain ascetic Bhadrabahu in the later part of his life. Jain texts state that he died intentionally at Shravanabelagola by fasting.
  
  The third century BCE emperor Ashoka, in his pillar edicts, mentions the Niganthas (Jains). Tirthankara statues date back to the second century BCE. Archeological evidence suggests that Mathura was an important Jain center from the second century BCE. onwards. Inscriptions from as early as the first century CE already show the schism between Digambara and Śvētāmbara. There is inscriptional evidence for the presence of Jain monks in south India by the second or first centuries BCE, and archaeological evidence of Jain monks in Saurashtra in Gujarat by the second century CE.
  
  Royal patronage has been a key factor in the growth and decline of Jainism. In the second half of the first century CE, Hindu kings of the Rashtrakuta dynasty sponsored major Jain cave temples. King Harshavardhana of the seventh century championed Jainism, Buddhism and all traditions of Hinduism. The Pallava King Mahendravarman I (600–630 CE) converted from Jainism to Shaivism. His work Mattavilasa Prahasana ridicules certain Shaiva sects and the Buddhists and expresses contempt for Jain ascetics. The Yadava dynasty built many temples at the Ellora Caves between 700 and 1000 CE. King Āma of the eighth century converted to Jainism, and the Jain pilgrimage tradition was well established in his era. Mularaja (10th century CE), the founder of the Chalukya dynasty, constructed a Jain temple, even though he was not a Jain. During the 11th century, Basava, a minister to the Jain Kalachuri king Bijjala, converted many Jains to the Lingayat Shaivite sect. The Lingayats destroyed Jain temples and adapted them to their use. The Hoysala King Vishnuvardhana (c. 1108 –1152 CE) became a Vaishnavite under the influence of Ramanuja, and Vaishnavism then grew rapidly in what is now Karnataka.