Home›Founders›All FoundersBrowse ByAll FoundersFigures a tradition itself names as the one who began it, or who gave it the form it still holds. The claim is rarely simple. Jainism counts Mahavira as the last of twenty-four Tirthankaras rather than the first teacher, and Buddhism names Buddhas before Gautama, so this shelf records who a tradition points to and how it qualifies the pointing.FactsLearn MoreAll FoundersSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0)FactsOverviewWhat Defines This GroupingWell-attestedFigures a tradition names as the origin of its teaching. Not every tradition has one, and where one is named the role differs, teacher, prophet, manifestation, so the heading does not name a single kind of person. 2What Defines This GroupingWell-attestedJainism rejects the description. Mahavira is presented not as a founder but as the twenty-fourth Tirthankara of the present half-cycle, restating a teaching held to have no beginning. 3Tradition: JainismDirectoryCategoryWell-attestedFigures 1Learn MoreThe Founders This group holds founders, the figures at the origin of a religion, order or tradition, whose life and teaching set it in motion. Founders occupy a special place, remembered as the source from which a whole community traces itself. The browser will find the founding figures the atlas classes here. The entries describe each within their tradition, and where a founder is also worshipped as a deity or revered as a saint the atlas notes that their story is told from more than one angle across its pages.All FoundersFilter Results17 entriesPlace of OriginAllChina (1)England (1)Germany (1)India (2)Judea (1)Persia (1)Scotland (1)The Andes (1)United States (1)HistoricityAllHistorically attested (12)Historicity debated (2)Legendary: known from narrative tradition, not the historical record (2)TraditionAllBahá’í Faith (1)Buddhism (3)Chinese Folk Religion (1)Christianity (8)Inca Religion (1)Islam (1)Korean Muism (1)Sikhism (1)Veneration StatusAllActively venerated in a living tradition (9)Historically attested; no continuous cult (1)No Cult Attested (3)Revered InAllBaha'i Faith (3)Buddhism (2)Christianity (5)Hinduism (1)Islam (2)Sikhism (1)Lifespan Start YearAll-2333 (1)-600 (1)-599 (1)-4 (1)1200 (1)1483 (1)1484 (1)1494 (1)1496 (1)1509 (1)1514 (1)1703 (1)1817 (1)1835 (1)1870 (1)Child OfAllGuru Nanak (1)Joseph of Nazareth (1)Mary (1)Maya (1)Manner Of DeathAllDied of natural causes (6)Entered parinirvana (1)Executed (1)Killed in battle (1)GenderAllFemale (2)Male (14)Show ResultsBrowseCompareSelect all 17Baha'u'llahFoundersBhrikutiFoundersDangunFoundersHuldrych ZwingliFoundersJesusFoundersJohn CalvinFoundersJohn KnoxFoundersJohn WesleyFoundersMahapajapati GotamiFoundersManco CapacFoundersMartin LutherFoundersMenno SimonsFoundersMirza Ghulam AhmadFoundersSiddhartha GautamaFoundersSri ChandFoundersWilliam J. SeymourFoundersYu the GreatFoundersSources1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Treetier 12. Encyclopedia of Religiontier 1Mircea Eliade (ed.); Lindsay Jones (ed., 2nd ed.), Macmillan Reference, 2005The classification of religious figuresView the Source3. The Jainstier 1Paul Dundas, Routledge, 2002Mahavira and the historical foundation of JainismView the SourceDivinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptionstier 1Comments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.