Mahāvīra (Sanskrit: महावीर "Great Hero", Kannada: ಮಹಾವೀರ Mahāvīra, Malayalam: മഹാവീരൻ Mahāvīran and Tamil: அருகன் Arukaṉ) is the name most commonly used to refer to the Indian sage Vardhamāna (Sanskrit: वर्धमान; traditionally 599–527 BCE) who established what are today considered to be the central tenets of Jainism. According to Jain tradition, he was the 24th and the last Tirthankara. In Tamil, he is referred to as Arukaṉ or Arukadevan. He is also known in texts as Vira or Viraprabhu, Sanmati, Ativira,and Gnatputra. In the Buddhist Pali Canon, he is referred to as Nigantha Nātaputta and Gyatra Putta.
In a place called Kundalagrama (Vaishali district) situated close to Besadha Patti, 27 miles from Patna in modern day Bihar, India, Mahavira was born in a royal family to King Siddartha and Queen Trishala on the 13th day under the rising moon of Chaitra (12 April according to the Gregorian calendar). While still in his mother's womb it is believed he brought wealth and prosperity to the entire kingdom, which is why he was named Vardhaman. An increase of all good things, like the abundant bloom of beautiful flowers, was noticed in the kingdom after his conception. Trishala had a number of auspicious dreams before giving birth to Vardhaman (14 according to the Svetambaras and 16 according to the Digambaras), signs foretelling the advent of a great soul.He found "Nirvana" at the age of 72 in 527 BC near Rajgir, Bihar .Vardhaman's birthday is celebrated as Mahavir Jayanti, the most important religious holiday of Jains around the world.
Gulshan Kumar (गुलशन कुमार) (5 May 1956 - 12 August 1997) was the founder of the T-Series music label (Super Cassettes Industries Ltd.), and an Indian Bollywood movie producer. T series is now run by his son Bhushan Kumar. His daughter Tulsi Kumar is a playback singer.
Born Gulshan Dua into a Punjabi Hindu Arora family, he was the son of Chandrabhan, a fruit juice seller in Darya Ganj market in Delhi, where he started working early on. Later Gulshan changed career paths when his family acquired a shop selling records and cheap audio cassettes, this was the beginning of what was to become a vast music empire.
He founded Super Cassettes Industries, a small audio cassette operation which soon grew to be very big. Later he started a music production company in Noida, near Delhi. He is said to have started the practice of exploiting a loophole in the Indian copyright law, and creating cover versions of popular songs.
To counter relatively expensive audio tapes which used to be marketed by reputed music companies, Gulshan brought out in the late 1970s very cheaply made and low priced music cassettes. He exported quality music cassettes when his business grew.
Anuradha Paudwal is a popular playback singer in Bollywood in India. She has sung songs in Hindi, Marathi, Oriya, and Nepali.
She studied at Xavier's College in Mumbai. She was married to the late Arun Paudwal, who worked with music director S. D. Burman as his assistant. Her singing career started in 1973 with the movie, Abhimaan, (starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan) in which she sang a Shloka (a Sanskrit verse). In the same year she also made her Marathi film debut with "Yashoda" (music by Datta Davjekar). In 1974, she brought out a record of Non-film Marathi songs or "bhav geeten" which became very popular.
In 1976, she got her break as a playback singer in Hindi films with Kalicharan (starring Shatrughan Sinha and Reena Roy). Her first solo was in the movie, Aap Beati, (starring Hema Malini and Shashi Kapoor). Laxmikant-Pyarelal were the music-composer duo for that movie. She also occasionally sang songs for composers Rajesh Roshan (Des Pardes), Jaidev (Dooriyan, Laila Majnu), Kalyanji Anandji (Kalaakar, Vidhaata), and Usha Khanna (Souten, Sajan Bina Suhagan).