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Encyclopaedia of Jaina Studies
mothers of Jinas. He was given the name Aristanemi calls etc. because his mother had seen a Nemi made of rista After dividing his kingdom among his hundred Jewels at the time of his conception.
sons, at the time of his renunciation Rsabhanātha arrived Aristanemi is described as the cousin of Krsna. at the park known as Siddhārthavana. Under an aśoka He was having tremendous strength and was only one tree he shed his cloths and ornaments and plucked out to bend Krşņa's bow and blow his conch. Aristanemi his hair like other Jinas in four handfuls instead of five was challenged by Krsna to a test of physical strength and became a monk. He practised austerities for years in which Krsna could not get success. To weaken his and attained omniscience. He attained liberation under strength Krsna and his wife urged Aristanemi to marry a banyan tree, on Mt. Astāpada. but Aristanemi was disinclined to worldly things and Sthavirāvali in place devoted himself to the pursuits of spiritual The second part of the Kalpasutra-Sthaviravali perfection. But on Krsna's persuation his marriage was gives the genealogy of important teachers of the Jaina fixed with Rajamati, the daughter of king Ugrasena. faith. It starts with Ganadharas, the eleven disciples of While on his way with the marriage procession Māhāvīra who were versed in twelve angas, fourteen Aristanemi hearing the cries of animals, to be slain for purva treatises and the doctrine of the gains and closes the wedding banquet was filled with revulsion for the with a passage venerating many teachers. world and decided to abandon the world and became Sädhu-Samācāri a monk (Pl. 258).
The third and the last part of the Kalpasütra states Aristanemi relinquishing all his possessions stepped the rules of conduct for ordained during the four months into the renunciation palanquin and came to the park of the rain-rest. It includes issues of food, shelter, called Revataka. Similar to other Jinas, under an aśoka deportment and travel etc. tree he shed his finery and ornaments, and plucking The popularity of the custom to recite the Kalpahis hair in five handfuls, became a mendicant. At the sūtra to large congregations necessitated the ready end of fifty-four days of practising austerities he attained availability of copies of Kalpasūtra. As a result a great omniscience. After passing thousand years on earth he number of Kalpasūtra manuscripts were prepared between passed away on the summit of Mt. Girnar in Gujarat. the 12th and 20th centuries and kept in Jñana-bhandāras) Life of Rşabhanātha
of Idar (Gujarat), Pāțana (North Gujarat), Dayävimalaji The life of the first Jina Rsabhanatha like the lives Šāstra Sangraha, Devasano Pado, Ahmedabad, Limbdi of other Jinas was marked by five auspicious events. (Saurastra), Chhenai, Surat, Kaccha and several other After three sägaropamas, Rşabhanātha descended on places. The Kalpasutra was the most frequently and earth from a celestial sphere called Sarvārthasiddha. His profusely illustrated text of the Svetämbara Jainas. The mother was Marudevī and father was Nābhi of Iksavāku Kalpasūtra with a few miniatures is the earliest extant land. When he was conceived, his mother saw fourteen example of the first illustrated version of the holy book. lucky dreams. Among the fourteen dreams, in place of It depicts a Jina, a preaching scene, the birth of a Jina, second, the bull appeared first and for this reason the a perfected being (Siddha) and the symbol of child was named Rşabhanātha. He was born in Caitra omniscience. Some manuscripts were embellished (March).
specially with the lives of Tirthankaras, and adorned Rşabhanatha ruled as a king for millions of years with border decoration (Pl. 246). The life scenes of and during this period he taught his subjects seventy Tirthankaras include Brahmani Devananda and Trisalā's two arts, which included mathematics, writing, bird- fourteen lucky dreams (Pl. 249), the interpreters of the
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