Biography in Jainism

Lives of the Tirthankaras, the acharyas who carried the teaching after them, and the scholars, ascetics and patrons who shaped the tradition.

The biographical literature is substantial and is doctrinally significant rather than incidental: the Kalpa Sutra, read aloud in full during Paryushan, is largely a life of Mahavira, and the narrative of his renunciation and twelve years of austerity is how the path is taught to most Jains. Beyond the Tirthankaras stand figures such as Bhadrabahu, the last to know the complete canon; Umaswati, whose Tattvartha Sutra both traditions accept; Kundakunda, the foundational Digambara philosopher; and Hemachandra, scholar and polymath of twelfth-century Gujarat.

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