The early Jain and Buddhist literature that has survived into the modern era uses other names or epithets for Mahavira. These include Nayaputta, Muni, Samana, Niggantha, Brahman, and Bhagavan. In early Buddhist Suttas, he is also referred to by the names Araha (meaning "worthy"), and Veyavi (derived from the word "Vedas", but contextually it means "wise" because Mahavira did not recognize the Vedas as a scripture). Buddhist texts refer to Mahavira as Niga??ha Jñ?taputta. Niga??ha means "without knot, tie, or string" and Jñ?taputta (son or scion of Natas), refers to his clan of origin as Jñ?ta or Naya (Prakrit). The Jain text Kalpasutras states that he is also known as Sramana because he is "devoid of love and hate".

According to later Jain texts, Mahavira's childhood name was Vardham?na ("the one who grows"), because of the increased prosperity in the kingdom at the time of his birth. According to the Kalpasutras, he was called Mahavira ("the great hero") by the gods because he stood steadfast in the midst of dangers and fears, hardships and calamities. Mahavira is also called a Tirthankara.

Though it is universally accepted by scholars of Jainism that Mahavira was an actual person who lived in ancient India, the details of his biography and the year of his birth are uncertain, and continue to be a subject of considerable debate among scholars. Digambara text, Uttarapur?na mention that Mahavira was born at Kundpur kingdom of Videh. and Svetambara text, Kalpas?tra use the name Kundagrama. It is said to be located in present-day Bihar, India. This is assumed to be the modern town of Basu Kund, which is about 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Patna, the capital of Bihar. However, it is unclear if the ancient Kundagrama is the same as the current assumed location, and the birthplace remains a subject of dispute. Mahavira renounced all his material wealth and left his home when he was twenty-eight by some accounts, or thirty by others, then lived an ascetic life and performed severe austerities for twelve years, and thereafter preached Jainism for a period of thirty years. The location where he preached has been a subject of historic disagreement between the two major sub-traditions of Jainism – the Svetambaras and the Digambaras.

The Jain ?v?t?mbara tradition believes he was born in 599 BC and died in 527 BC, while the Digambara tradition believes 510 BC was the year he died. The scholarly controversy arises from efforts to date him and the Buddha, because both are believed to be contemporaries according to Buddhist and Jain texts, and because, unlike for Jain literature, there is extensive ancient Buddhist literature that has survived. Almost all Indologists and historians, state Dundas and others, accordingly date Mahavira's birth to about 497 BC and his death to about 425 BC. However, the Vira era tradition that started in 527 BC and places Mahavira in the 6th century BC is a firmly established part of the Jain community tradition.

The 12th-century Jain scholar Hemachandra placed Mahavira in the 5th century BC. According to Kailash Jain, Hemachandra made an incorrect analysis that, along with attempts to establish Buddha's nirvana date, has been a source of confusion and controversy about Mahavira's year of nirvana. Kailash Jain states the traditional date of 527 BC is accurate, adding that the Buddha was a junior contemporary of the Mahavira and that the Buddha "might have attained nirvana a few years later". The place of his death, Pavapuri (now in Bihar), is a pilgrimage site for Jains.

According to Jain texts, 24 Tirthankaras have appeared on earth in the current time cycle of Jain cosmology. Mahavira was the last Tirthankara of Avasarpi?? (present descending phase or half of the time cycle). A Tirthankara (Maker of the River-Crossing, saviour, spiritual teacher) signifies the founder of a tirtha, which means a fordable passage across the sea of interminable cycles of births and deaths (called sa?s?ra).

Birth

Belonging to Kashyapa gotra, Mahavira was born into the royal Kshatriya family of King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala of the Ikshvaku dynasty. This is the same solar dynasty in which Hindu epics place Rama and the Ramayana, and in which the Buddhist texts place the Buddha, and the Jains attribute another twenty-one of their twenty-four Tirthankaras over millions of years.

According to the Digambara Jains, Mahavira was born in 582 BC. According to the Svetambara Jain texts, he was born in 599 BC. Mahavira's birthday, in the traditional calendar, falls on the thirteenth day of the rising moon in the month of Chaitra in the Vira Nirvana Samvat calendar. In the Gregorian calendar, this date falls in March or April and is celebrated by Jains as Mahavir Jayanti.