About 250 years before Mahavira, Prince Parshvanatha of Varanasi also renounced his palace — teaching peace with a serpent's shelter above his head.
As a young prince, Parshvanatha once saw wood being gathered for a ritual fire — and inside a log, a snake, trapped and hiding. He stopped the fire, split the log, and gently rescued the snake, feeding it milk before letting it go. The snake, the stories say, was the serpent king Dharanendra.
Years later, when a demon hurled stones at the meditating prince, Dharanendra spread his great hoods like an umbrella above Parshvanatha's head, shielding him from every stone. That image — a meditating figure beneath a canopy of cobra hoods — is how Jain art remembers him.
He renounced his palace at thirty, like Mahavira after him, and taught four great vows: do no harm, speak the truth, take nothing that is not given, and want little. Mahavira later added a fifth. Together they are the promises every Jain still makes.
A Jain story tells of Prince Parshva seeing a holy man's fire. He noticed that snakes were trapped inside a burning log. He asked for the log to be opened carefully. The snakes were brought out, and he recited a sacred prayer for them. His care reached even these tiny creatures.
⭐ Lesson: Every living being deserves kindness.
Parshvanatha was meditating when a fierce storm came. In Jain stories, an angry being called Kamatha sent the storm. Parshvanatha stayed calm and felt no anger. Dharanendra, a serpent king, spread his hoods above him like an umbrella. The storm could not shake Parshvanatha's peaceful mind.
⭐ Lesson: Patience can help us through life's storms.
What it means: I bow with respect to the awakened teachers. They show us how to be peaceful and gentle with all life.
Jain temples often show a canopy of cobra hoods above a meditating statue — a thousand-year reminder that kindness to even a snake is repaid a hundredfold.