While both Guatama and Mahavira followed a similar patterns in life, there were small differences in Mahavira’s and Gautama’s life from the beginning. For example, the mothers of Gautama and Mahavira both had dreams that foretold that the boys would either become great religious leaders or great warriors. Mahavira’s mother dreamed that the baby was conceived in the Brahmin Devanda’s womb and then later transferred to her body; Gautama’s mother dreamed that a white elephant holding a lotus flower entered her body. However they were raised differently: Gautama’s father surrounded him with every earthly pleasure to force him to become a warrior; however, Mahavira’s father did not try to force the outcome and allowed the boy to find his own path.

Mahavira was born in 599 BC in Bihar, India (formerly Vaishali Videha) where he lived a normal princely life until the age of 28 when both of his parents died.