Mahavira

Mahavira was an ancient Indian ascetic and the twenty-fourth tirthankara (ford-maker) of Jainism. He taught that liberation is achieved through non-violence, truth, non-stealing, chastity, and non-possession — principles that became the ethical core of Jain philosophy.

Mahavira's Jainism holds that the universe is eternal and uncreated, governed by natural law rather than divine will. Its doctrine of anekantavada — the many-sidedness of truth — is a sophisticated epistemological position acknowledging that every perspective captures only partial truth, anticipating pluralist and relativist themes in modern philosophy.