Comprehensive History Of Jainism

Author(s): Aseem Kumar Chatterjee
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd

Page 34

A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
also known as Neminātha. According to the Jainas, he was an exact contemporary of the great Vasudeva-Krsna; he too, we are told, belonged to the Yādava tribe. His parents were Samudravijaya and Sivā of Soriyapura. He was only 10 dhanusas in height and his sacred tree was vetasa.
According to the sacred texts of the Jainas, Aristanemi's marriage was settled with Rāimai, a daughter of Uggasena. While on his way to marry, he saw a large number of animals in cages and enclosures, and when he learnt that they were kept there for slaughter at his impending marriage ceremony, he resolved to renounce the world.
The name 'Aristanemi' is known to the poet of the Mahābhārata, 49 but he cannot be identified with the Jaina Tirthamkara. In the Udyogaparvan of the Mahābhārata Krsna is once called by this name. 50 The Vaisnava works do not cite of an Aristanemi belonging to the Hari Vamsa. Although he is referred to in a Mathurā inscription,51 we cannot, in the absence of more positive evidence, call him as historical figure. It is also interesting that both Krsna and Neminātha are given a lifespan of 1,000 years in the Jaina canonical texts.
Arișțanemi's chief disciples were Varadatta and Yakkiņi, and he died on the summit of mount Ujjamta (Girnar), one of the holiest tīrthas of the Jainas.52 The Buddhist texts cite a certain 'Aranemi', 53 but he cannot be identified with the twenty-second Jaina Tirthamkara.
I have given above the Jaina account of their first twenty-two Tirthamkaras. With the possible exception of Rsabha, none of them has any claim to historicity. I have already expressed my view regarding Rşabha's, but there is little doubt that he was accepted as a Tirtharnkara of the Jainas, only after the demise of Mahāvīra.
REFERENCES
1. 205 ff. 2. 157. 3. Kalp., 210; Sam., 108; Sthā, 435; etc. 4. 336-7. 5. 191, 383, 398. 6. Kalp., 212. 7. 157. 8. Loc. cit. 9. Kalp. 213,1; Sam., 84.