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Chapter 01
Introduction to Research
method. Several Indian Sites have been dated largely due to the efforts of my colleagues at Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, and they generally group around 3000 years Before Present (B.P.) in Bihar region to 4500 years B.P. in peninsular India. The one exception of the oldest wheat found in India, so far, is in Lahura Dewa (Uttar Pradesh) estimated by M.G. Yadava and others (Unpublished, personal communication) to be around 10,300- 11,100 B.P. Subject to its confirmation and considering that even older dates may be found in future, we can say that the reign of Rushabhdev pre-dated 11000 B.P. There is some evidence that paddy growing pre-dated wheat cultivation and much older grains have been found in China. These ages will put further constraints on the initiation of agriculture in India and its neighboring countries. A hearth found in the central Tibet has been dated. Several hand and foot prints imprinted on soft calcareous travertines are estimated to be 20,000 years indicating evidence of human activity in this area and that the last glaciations did not cover the entire Tibetan Plateau (Zhang et al, Current Science 2003). 3. Antiquity of Jainism Rushabhdev was the founder of Jainism and the first Tirthankar. We can therefore look for the earliest evidence of Jainism in India. Much work has been done on Mohenjo Daro and other Harappan Sites and we make an attempt to summarize them here. Mention may be made of some modern historians like Ram Prasad Chanda, Dr. Vilas Sangave, Dr. Heinrich Zimmer, John Marshall, Thomas McEvilley and Mircea Eliade who in their works link Rushabhdev and Indus valley civilization based on Terracotta seals and other evidences found in excavations. For example, Ram Prasad Chanda, who supervised Indus valley Civilization excavations, states in his article "Mohenjo-Daro: Sindh 5000 Years Ago" in Modern Review (1932) that the seated deities scribed on some of the Indus seals are in yogic posture and the standing deities on the seals show the typical Kayotsarga (a standing or sitting posture of meditation) position. In the Adi Purana Book XVIII, the Kayotsarga posture is described in reference to the penance of Rushabh. Christopher Key Chappel and Richard Lannoy mention that the Seal 420, unearthed at MohenjoDaro portrays a person with 3 or 4 faces. Jain iconography frequently depicts its Tirthankars with four faces, symbolizing their missionary activities in all the four directions as was the case with the Jin Mandir memorial, built by Bharat at Ashtapad, mentioned above. Another seal depicts seven persons in upright position with arms hanging somewhat stiffly and held slightly away from the sides of the body which McEvilley correlates with the Jain Kayotsarga pose, the posture in which Rushabhdev is said to have acquired omniscience (Keval Jnan). Dr. Kashiprasad Jayaswal mentions that there is clear resemblance in naked idol carved in Kayotsarga Mudra in Harappa and one of the oldest idol of Mahavir. He claims that this idol is non-vedic and belongs to Sramanic or Vratya tradition, originally part of proto-Dravidian Brahmi, non-Sanskrit culture. Looking for archaeological/cultural evidence in south India, e.g. at Tamil Nadu. Dravidians even today worship Arugar (Murugar), also known as Aadinath (Rushabhdev) or Shiva. Thiruvalluvar, the famous poet saint, who lived around 1st Century B.C. quotes Rushabh in Thirukural. If this is indeed related to Rushabhdev then his influence had encompassed a large region, from Tibet to Tamil Nadu. This discussion thus shows that historically, the roots of Jainism are more of proto-Dravidian and pre-Vedic origin.
13
- The Quest for Ashtapad
