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name from Bharata son of Rishabha (PHB. Vol. 1. pp. 205, 207, 210 and 213). Mr. Iyer's comment on this is as follows:
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"The name Rishabha constantly mentioned as referring to the father of Bharata, signifies Dharma usually described as a bull in the Puranas " (Ibid. p. 213).
According to Srimad Bhagavata, Rishabha Deva was the son of Nabhiraja by Maru Devi, and Bharata was his son. This is in agreement with the Jaina tradition. Thus, all these works on Hindu mythology definitely show that in personifying Dharma for the requirements of their mythological teaching, the minds of the rishi-composers of these ingenious symbols naturally went back to Rishabha Deva, as the first Tirthamkara and founder of Dharma. The bull is the mark by which the images of Paramâtman Rishabha are distinguished from those of the other Tirthamkares in the Jaina Temples, and it is therefore not at all surprising that the bull should also be associated with Dharma in the symbolical language of Hindu mythology.
Jain Education International
As implied in the passage from St. Paul, already quoted-"For if the dead rise not, then is Christ not risen" (1 Cor. xv. 16)-souls have been always obtain. ing resurrection from the dead and attaining nirvana; but the Tirthamkaras are only 24 in each cycle. They are the greatest of all living beings and attain to the most exalted Supreme Status on account of having evolved out the following auspicious characteristics, in
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