The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1793 page)

P
r
va
.

Twenty-third
t
rtha
kara
in Jainism. Accepted now as a historical figure, born in the 9th cent BCE (
c.
250 years before
Mah
v
ra
), tradition claims that he became a wandering ascetic for seventy years, teaching the law of fourfold restraint:
ahi
s
(non-injury);
asatya
(not lying);
asteya
(not taking anything not given);
aparigraha
(non-attachment to people, places, or things). According to 11th-cent. Jain commentators, this latter restraint included
brahmacharya
(chastity), the fifth vow in Mah
v
ra's
mah
vratas
(see
FIVE GREAT VOWS
). Jain scriptures describe him as ‘the Best’, ‘the Awakened’, and ‘the Omniscient’, and claim that he gained a large following in his travels through Bihar and W. Bengal, where Jains today give him special honour, particularly on Mount Sammeta where he attained
nirv
na
and died. Numerous excavations in N. India have uncovered images of P
r
va seated under a canopy of cobras, the symbol associated with this
jina
.