Sudharmaswami

Statue of Sudharmaswami in Rujuwalika Jain Temple in Jharkhand
Venerated in	Jainism
Personal information
Born	607 BC
Parents	Rajanswami (adoptive father/uncle) Sampurn (father) Prithvidarshyānā (mother)

Sudharmaswami (Sanskrit: Sudharmāsvāmī or Sudharman; 607 BC – 507 BC) was the fifth ganadhara of Mahavira. All the current Jain acharyas and monks follow his rule.

Life

Sudharmaswami was the spiritual successor of Indrabhuti Gautama in religious order reorganised by Mahavira. He is traditionally dated from 607 to 507 BC. In the Jain tradition he is believed to have obtained omniscience after 12 years in 515 BC. He is believed to have attained nirvana in 507 BC at the age of 100. The leadership of religious order was then transferred to Jambuswami who served for 44 years and was the last Ganadhara who survived after the death of Mahavira.

For Jains, their scriptures represent the literal words of Mahavira and the other tirthankaras only to the extent that the agama texts are a series of fixed truths without a beginning or an end, and a tradition without any origin, human or divine, which in this world age has been channelled through Sudharmasvāmī.

See also

• Jain monasticism

References

Sources

• Dundas, Paul (2002) [1992], The Jains (Second ed.), Routledge, ISBN 0-415-26605-X
• George, Vensus A. (2008), Paths to the Divine: Ancient and Indian, vol. XII, The Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, ISBN 978-1-56518-248-6
• Shah, Natubhai (2004) [First published in 1998], Jainism: The World of Conquerors, vol. I, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-81-208-1938-2