ABSTRACT
There is no knowledge of Mahåv⁄ra’s given name Vardhamåna in the earliest stratum of the biography and the use of the epithet Mahåv⁄ra as a personal name, while occurring in the first book of the S¨trakr¸tån≥ga, is unknown in the first book of the Åcårån≥ga. Furthermore, the oldest texts never use the term ‘fordmaker’ and very seldom jina, the word which gives Jainism its name. Instead we find terms such as Nåyåputta, ‘son of the Nåyås’, an obscure expression which seems to refer to Mahåv⁄ra’s warrior clan of origin, called in Sanskrit Jñåta, and the name by which he is known in early Buddhist writings, ‘ascetic’ (muni, saman˝a, niggan˝†ha), brahman, ‘venerable’ (bhagavån) and occasionally araha, ‘worthy’, a term found frequently in early Buddhism, and veyav⁄, ‘knower of the Veda’, which here may just signify ‘wise’.
