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The Oldest Living Religion And Prof. R. D. Ranade, giving details of Rsabhadeva's mystical life rightly designates this first Tirthankara of the Jainas, as “Yet a mystic of different kind whose utter carelessness of his body is the supreme mark of his God-realization”. 2
Dr. S. C. Vidya Bhusban—'Jainism reaches back to the beginning of the creation itself. I have no doubt in asserting that Jaina philosophy is much anterior to Vedānta and other systems”.?
Dr. N. N. Basu Probably Rşabhadeva was the first to discover the art of writing. He seems to have invented the Brāhmi script for the propagation of Brahma-Vidyā, and that is why he came to be known as the 8th Avatāra. He was born to Marudevi, the queen of the Indian king Nābhirāja and is mentioned in the Bhāgavata as the 8th of the 22 Avatāras”. 3
Dr. Sir Radhakrishnan also affirms that “The Bhāgavata Purana endorses the view that Rsabha was the founder of Jainism. There is evidence to show that so far back as the first century B. C. there were people who were worshipping Rşabhadeva, the first Tirtharkara. There is Bo doubt that Jainism prevailed even before Vardhamāna or Pārsvanātha. The Yajurveda mentions the names of three Tirtharkaras-Rsabha, Ajitanātha and Aristanemi”. 4
From the Rgvedic hymns, their old est commentator, Kātyāyana in his Sarvānukramanikā, Sadguru Sisya in bis Vedārtha Dipikā, Sāyaṇa in his Bhāşya - all admit the term Ķsabha to be a personal name, but they do not specify the identity of the person named."
1 Mysticism in Mahārāshtra, p. 9. 2 In an Address-See Satyārtha Darpaņa, p. 97. 3 Hindi Viśvakoşa, Vol. I, p. 64 and Vol. III, p. 444. 4 Indian Philosophy, Vol. I, p. 287 (First Edition). 5 Sarvānukramaņikā (London), p. 164.
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