Sudharmaswami

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

Life

Sudharmaswami gained omniscience in 515 BC and attained Nirvana in 507 BC at the age of 100. After gaining omniscience, the religious order was entrusted to his principal pupil, Jambuswami. During the period of his stewardship, Sudharmaswami composed the Lord's teachings in 12 parts, which are known as the 12 Jain Agamas. Many of the agamas are composed in the form of questions asked by the disciple Jambuswami and the replies given by Sudharmaswami.

For Jains, their scriptures represent the literal words of Mahāvīra and the other fordmakers only to the extent that the Agama is a series of beginning-less, endless and fixed truths, a tradition without any origin, human or divine, which in this world age has been chanelled through Sudharman, the last of Mahavira's disciples to survive.