Pārśvanātha
The beloved of the people — purisādāṇīya — and the point where the line touches recorded history.
Pārśva of Vārāṇasī taught the caturyāma dharma, the fourfold restraint; the Uttarādhyayana stages a courteous debate between his followers and Mahāvīra's over the difference from the later five vows, and resolves it as one teaching in two forms. Historians generally accept him as a historical teacher of roughly the 8th–9th century BCE.
His emblem is the serpent, and he alone is drawn with the seven-hooded canopy: Dharaṇendra, king of the nāgas, sheltering him through Kamaṭha's storm — the one piece of individual iconography the tradition gives any of the twenty-four.
He stood 9 hāth — the heights too have left the dhanuṣ — and lived 100 years, 83,750 years after Nemi. Mahāvīra followed him by 250.
Measurements and counts
| Number | 23 of 24 |
|---|---|
| Height | 9 hāth |
| Lifespan | 100 years |
| After Neminātha | 83,750 years |
| Born | Vārāṇasī |
| Complexion | blue |
| Emblem | serpent |
| Mokṣa | Sammeta Śikhara |
| Parents | Aśvasena · Vāmā |