Antiquity of Jainism

Author(s): Mahaveer Saran Jain
Publisher: Mahaveer Saran Jain

Page 20

"But they have ignored other mentions in the same Purana and elsewhere about Rishabha son Bharata....For this opinion the necessary testimonials have not been adduced. Probably these cannot be anything else than the slokas quoted above. But the fact that in the same Purana it is clearly mentioned elsewhere that the name
Bharatvarsha was given by Rishabha son Bharat, and that the word" Desha" or " Varsha' does not occur with Dushyanta's son Bharata, does not appear to have been considered carefully by these scholars before asserting
their opinion"
In the Purana it is clearly mentioned:
ऋषभो मरुदेव्याश्च ऋषभात भरतो भवेत्
भरताद भारतं वर्षं, भरतात सुमतिस्त्वभूत्
That is "Rishabha was born to Marudevi, Bharat was born to Rishabha, Bharatvarsha (India) arose from Bharat, and Sumati arose from Bharat."
Historicity of twenty-second Tirthankar