Among the contemporary orthodox teachers with the Buddha was Vardhamana known to his followers as Mahavira (the great Hero) born about 540 B.C.religion of conquerors (Jinas) had a history different from Buddhism.
Vardhamana was wholly the product of oligarchic martial clans which were a powerful political force at that time, Educated as a prince & married & had a daughter, his real interest lay in the quest for Salvation.
At thirty after his parents dead he left his home for life of Asceticism.
It succeeded in establishing itself firmly & in some places very influential but never spread beyond India unlike Buddhism there were no fundamental changes & developments in Jaina doctrine & though it was never so important, It survived in the land of it’s birth.
The legends of Vardhamana are less attractive & are even more formalized & unreliable but as he is referred to in the Buddhist scripture as one of the Buddha’s chief opponent his historicity is beyond doubt.
Vardhmana firstly followed the practices of Nirgranthas (free from bonds). The term later used for the members of the order which Mahavira founded.
It has been suggested that Jainism surrender in India whereas Buddhism perished because the former sect took better care of it’s layfolk.& Jainism doctrine no more differ from Hinduism.
The domestic rites of the layman such as birth marriage & death were those of Hindu’s.
At one time Jainism maintained a culture of stupas in the same way as Buddhism but this has not survived & early in the Christian era,the Tirthankhars were ordered in temples in the form of icons. By the middle ages this worship approximated to that of Hindu’s with offering of flowers,incense, lamps & so on. As with Buddhism the chief gods of the Hindu’s found their way in to Jainism Temples in subordinate positions & though there was no real compromise with theism. The sect easily fitted into the Hindu order, it’s member’s forming distinct castes.
Jaina religious literature is generally dull & pedantic & it’s ethics,though they inculcate such virtues as honesty & mercy, tend to negative & fundamentally selfish. The virtue of non-violence in Jainism often had little of love about it but merely involved vegetarianism & precautions against the accidental killing of small animals.