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JAINISM
SRICHAND RAMPURIA
Jainism is a very ancient religion. Of the twentyfour Tirthankaras Rsabha, the first Tirthankara, was the son of the fourteenth Patriarch Nabhi. His mother's name was Marudevi. He was the first king of the land of Bharata. He taught his people to fight, to write and to cultivate land for growing food. He also taught arts, seventytwo to men and sixtyfour to women and a hundred sciences. He had one hundred sons. King Rsabha divided his kingdom into hundred parts and distributed them amongst his sons. After that he renounced the world and became a monk. Bharata, the eldest son, asked his brothers to acknowledge his supremacy. The result was the possibility of an imminent war. Rsabha at once preached to his sons the virtue of ahimsa and initiated nintyeight of them in his monastic order. Thus the war that was looming large was avoided. This was one of the finest events of Rsabha's life. Bharata became the king-emperor and it is after his name that this land became known as Bharata.
The Rsabha had two daughters named Brahmi and Sundari. earliest Indian Script 'Brahmi' is named after one of them. When his second son Bahubali (he did not renounced earlier) became a monk and would not give up his ego it was at Rsabha's suggestion that these two ladies went to their brother and asked him to give up his ego. It was the first instance in Indian tradition where a man was inspired by
women.
Rsabha's name is found in the Rgveda, Yajurveda and elsewhere. From this it is proved that this religion is at least as old as the Vedas,
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