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COMPENDIUM OF JAINISM
the renowned name of Bhāratvarṣa. Ṛsabha parted with everything that he had and took to the life of a Śravana. He went to Mount Kailasa where he practised penance as a naked Muni. He attained Omniscience and preached the religion of Ahimsā, love and truth. He had 84 Gaṇadharas or apostles who interpreted his sermons to the audience. Vṛṣabhasena. the younger brother of Bharata was the first to become the spiritual messenger of the Tirthankara. Somaprabha and Śreyāṁśa at whose place he accepted food after long fast, also became the apostles. His eldest daughter Brahmi was the first to accept asceticism and become a nun. His second daughter Sundari was the next to join the order of nuns. It may be noted that according to tradition, Rṣabhadeva is credited with the invention of a script to teach his daughters and that it is for that reason that the script came to be known as Brahmi script.
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That Rṣabhadeva preached the gospel of Ahimsa is mentioned in the Visnupurana and Vayupurāṇa, which only proves that the Tirthankara was respected even by the Hindus. After preaching his religion which came to be known as the religion of Jinas, he retired to Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas and attained salvation or Nirvana after destroying the aghātīya Karmas. He attained Nirvana on the fourteenth day of the dark half of the month of Magha.
Reference has already been made to the finds during the excavations at Harappa and Mohenjadaro where nude images of ascetics in Kayotsarga and seals with emblem of bull have been found. Scholars have deduced from the numerous finds that the Indus Valley Civilization was a pre- Aryan civilization with the Ahimsa cult. From the absence of any weapons of war amongst the finds, scholars have informed that there might not have been wars and that the State administration must have been founded on the principle of non-violence. It is a good augury that such archeological discoveries and other evidences are gradually favouring the Jaina tradition of its antiquity.
During the present cycle of time, there were twenty-four Tirthankaras whose names and some other details are as follows:
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