Parshvanatha is said to have attained moksha on Mount Sammeda (Madhuban, Jharkhand) popular as Parasnath hill in the Ganges basin, an important Jain pilgrimage site.

Through diligent practice of 'bheg-gyan', which entails right belief and active awareness of one's true nature as a pure soul, unencumbered by the body and its passions, an individual can shed the perception-obscuring mohniya karma.

This enables the soul to experience its true essence, known as samyak darshan or self-realization, opening the pathway to liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth.

[17][4][18][13] According to Paul Dundas, Jain texts such as section 31 of Isibhasiyam (a description of his teachings, which may be historical) provide circumstantial evidence that he lived in ancient India.

[7][23][24][25] The earliest biographical descrption of his life is from a chapter of the Kalpa Sūtra: it is "extremely short in extent and probably modelled on that of Mahāvīra",[4] so as it is of a formulaic and hagiographic nature, "its value as a historical document is somewhat doubtful".

"[28] Additionally, Long points out "some scholars have suggested that Pārśvanātha and Mahāvīra were actually closer in time than the tradition claims",[9] referring to studies by Dhaky—who has identified certain Jain texts containing wording which implies that not so many years had elapsed between the two, leading Dhaky to suggest "Pārśva could not have started his ascetic career before the beginning of the sixth century BC" and "may have passed away only a few decades before Vardhamāna [i.e., Mahāvīra] had started his preaching career".

[10] In Jain tradition, Parshva is said to have visited some cities which, according to archaeological and historical evidence, first came to prominence during India's Second Urbanisation period, in the 7th-6th century BCE.

[10] Having compiled the traditional accounts about Pārśvanātha, states Glasenapp, it is the historian's approach "to try to obtain an approximate idea of his life and his teachings from the scanty material which stands the test of a critical examination", but there remain many uncertainties.

[24] According to Glasenapp, it cannot be known for certain how much the "colourful circle of legends [...] correspond to the historical facts": he accepts "the main tenets of Pārśva's doctrine", and that the "holy legend" probably does "conceal a historical nucleus",[6] with an essential "correctness of tradition" that Pārśva had been "of noble birth", a "young man from a wealthy family" who renounced the worldly life and riches to become a wandering ascetic, dedicated "completely to the attainment and proclamation of philosophical knowledge"—although many details of his life were "excessively embellished by his followers later".

[29] Gough additionally notes that the stories about Pārśva are rather reflective of the much later historical context when they were written: according to Gough, "since early Jain biographical accounts of the tīrthaṅkaras were composed in north India around the turn of the first millennium", "there is no evidence that he lived in Varanasi", which more likely reflects the city's status as "an important commercial center of north India in the early centuries of the Common Era", i.e., "the time periods when monks composed and developed these stories.

"[25] Doubts about Parshvanatha's historicity are also supported by the oldest Jain texts, which present Mahavira with sporadic mentions of ancient ascetics and teachers without specific names (such as sections 1.4.1 and 1.6.3 of the Acaranga Sutra).

[37] He was born on the tenth day of the dark half of the Hindu month of Pausha to King Ashwasena and Queen Vamadevi of Varanasi.

[50][51] Heinrich Zimmer translated a Jain text that sixteen-year-old Parshvanatha refused to marry when his father told him to do so; he began meditating instead because the "soul is its only friend".

Parshvanatha's practices included careful movement, measured speech, guarded desires, mental restraint and physical activity, essential in Jain tradition to renounce the ego.

According to Vividha Tirtha Kalpa, Kamath in an attempt to obstruct Parshvanatha from achieving Kevala Jnana caused continuous rain.

Parshvanatha was immersed in water up to his neck and to protect him the serpent god Dharanendra held a canopy of thousand hoods over his head and the goddess Padmavati coiled herself around his body.

[62] After preaching for 70 years, Parshvanath attained moksha at Shikharji on Parasnath hill[note 3][65][66] at the age of 100 on Shravana Shukla Saptami according to Lunar Calendar.

[71][note 4] His rebirths include:[73] King Aravinda, after the death of his minister's son, renounced his throne and led an ascetic life.

[73][84][85] According to Śvētāmbara tradition, he had eight ganadharas (chief monks): Śubhadatta, Āryaghoṣa, Vasiṣṭha, Brahmacāri, Soma, Śrīdhara, Vīrabhadra and Yaśas.

[51] Parshvanatha's nirgrantha (without bonds) monastic tradition was influential in ancient India, with Mahavira's parents part of it as lay householders who supported the ascetics.

[92][93][94][95] The monastic lineage of Upkeśa Gaccha is particularly important as it narrates the history of Jainism before Mahavira and describes the creation of three of the most prominent castes of Jain followers.

Due to this Jainism become the prominent religion of Kalinga and Dravida country during 8th century BCE even before the birth of the 24th Jain tirthankara Mahavira.

[99] According to the Śvētāmbaras, Mahavira expanded the scope of Parshvanatha's first four restraints with his ideas on ahimsa (non-violence) and added the fifth monastic vow (celibacy) to the practice of asceticism.

[108] The Uttardhyayana Sutra[109][110] (a Śvētāmbara text) describes Keśin Dālbhya as a follower of Parshvanatha and Indrabhuti Gautama as a disciple of Mahavira and discusses which doctrine is true: the fourfold restraint or the five great vows.

[111] According to Wendy Doniger, Parshvanatha allowed monks to wear clothes; Mahavira recommended nude asceticism, a practice which has been a significant difference between the Digambara and Śvētāmbara traditions.

[101] Further scholarship suggests a more complex situation, because some of the earliest Jain literature (such as section 1.8.1 of the Ācārāṅga Sūtra) connects Mahavira with three restraints: non-violence, non-lying, and non-possession.

[116] Paul Dundas writes that medieval Jain literature, such as that by the 9th-century Silanka, suggests that the practices of "not using another's property without their explicit permission" and celibacy were interpreted as part of non-possession.

[138][139] According to Umakant Premanand Shah, Hindu gods (such as Ganesha) as yaksha and Indra as serving Parshvanatha, assigned them to a subordinate position.

[143] Parshvanatha is depicted in dhyāna mudrā with ankle crossed in lotus position seated on a pedestal with a seven-hooded sesha hood above his head and shrivatsa on the chest.

[34][51][144] The Kahaum pillar, erected in 460 CE during the reign of Skandagupta, Gupta Empire,[145][146] bears an inscription that is adoration to Arihant and features a carving of Parshvanatha.