Nirgrantha is a term found in Pali Buddhist literature meaning "Freed from all ties." Devotees, naked mendicants, are free from all ties, wander naked, and cover themselves with ashes. Mahāvīra (Mahavira), the most recent tirthankara of Jainism and a contemporary of Gautama Buddha, called Jñāti after his family, is referred to as the Nirgrantha-jñātiputra in the Pali tipitaka.