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Is Rsabha the Jagannatha of Puri ?
P. C. Roy CHAUDHURI
Jainism was known in Orissa even before the advent of Sri Vardhamana Mahavira, the last Jaina Tirthankara (Path-finder) who was Buddha's contemporary. The first Tirthankara or the founder of the Jaina creed was Rsabha Deva pronounced as Rusabha Deva in Utkala. The large number of ancient images of Rusabha found in different parts of Orissa remote from one another indicate that Rusabha Deva was very well known in Orissa. Rusabha Deva is still installed in some of the Jaina temples of Orissa.
Jainism had a great hold on Orissa for centuries. Jaina antiquities have been found in districts like, Maurbhunj, Keonjhar, Cuttack, Puri, Balasore, and Koraput. The antiquities are ancient images of the Tirthankaras, Yaksas, Yaksinis, Caityas, etc. There are Jaina shrines with images of Jaina Tirthankaras old and modern in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Chauduar and other places.
During the time of King Kharavela in the First or Second Century A.D. Jainism was the state religion. King Asoka's grandson Sampriti was a Jaina and had given a great encouragement to the spread of Jaina cult. King Kharavela and his descendants had the famous caves in the hills of Orissa, Khandagiri, Udayagiri and Nilagiri made out with a large number of Jaina images sculptured on the walls of the caves essentially for the stay of the Jaina monks.
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