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kara. In the Vedic hymns he is described as one “who is capable of crossing over the ocean of life and death, as the remover of violence, one who is instrumental in sparing life from injury and so on.",3 Well renowned Vedic scholars like Svām! Virupaksa Vadiyar, M.A., Vedaratna, are fully convinced that these Vedic and Puranic references undoubtedly refer to the Jaina Tirthankara Aristanemi and to nobody else. What is more important is that even the Mabābhāratat makes a mention of his name with the adjective Jineśvara, in at least two places.
Dr. Prana Natha Vidyalankara published a Copper plate grant of the Babylonian ( Chaldean ) king Nebu
1 Rgveda (8, 8, 24; and 10, 178, 1), Yajurveda (25, 19 and 9, 25), Samaveda (4,1), Atharvaveda (20, 143, 10), Aitareya Brāhmaṇa (20,2), Yāska Nirukta (10, 12), Sarvānukramanikā, Vedārtha Dipikā. Sāyaṇa Bhāsya (p. 678), The Skarda Purāņa-Prabhāsa Khanda, (16, 96), The Bhāgavata (2, 7, 10), The Mārkandeya Purāņa (50,39-41) etc. Also see 'Jain references in the Vedic and Puranic Literature--' Delhi 1930.
2 J.S.B., XIII, 2, p. 89-90. This particular hymn is
"स्वस्ति न इन्द्रो वृद्धश्रवाः स्वस्ति नः पूषा विश्ववेदाः । स्वस्ति नस्तायो अरिष्टनेमिः स्वस्तिनो बृहस्पतिर्दधातु ॥"
- (Rg. 1, 1, 16; Yajur, 25, 19, Sāma 3, 9). 3 Jaina Patha Pradarśaka, III, 3. p. 106-112. He says that even the Vedic interpretation of the term Arist anemi used tiierein is in conformation with the Jaina doctrines, and that Uvvatācārya also in bis commentary on that hymn of Yajurveda interprets it as the "Propagator
of Ahimsā”. : 4 Mahābbārata--Anusāsana, ch. 149, vs. 50, 80,
p. 151.
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