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Jaina Tirthamkaras and antiquity of Jainism
Rsabha lived millions and millions years ago'. 416
9. The historicity of early tīrthamkaras cannot be proved from the non
Jaina literary records of the second millennium BC.417
These arguments are extremely potent. But it would be unfair to view the first twenty-two tīrthamkaras as imaginary persons. The Jainas wrote the Purāna about the life of Rsabha and the Uttarapurāna about the life of other jinas. 418 These works were written to reveal the lives of the jinas to the followers of Jainism. It is difficult to believe that this vast literature which was produced to unfold information about the jinas dealt with imaginary persons.419 The period and the height assigned to these tirthamkaras are, undoubtedly, extremely exaggerated and unbelievable. But these should be viewed in a literal and not figurative sense. The enormous length of time and the height assigned to the jinas, were, probably suggestive of the hoary antiquity of Jainism and super human features of these pontiffs.420
We make a start with the historicity of Rsabha whom the Jainas regard as the first of the tīrthařkaras. Details of Rsabha's life are embodied in both the Svetāmbara and the Digambara literature. Adi Purāņa of the Digambaras and two Svetämbara works - Bhadrabāhu's Kalpasūtra and Hemacandra's Trisastiśalākāpurusacarita – contain an account of Rsabha's life.421 The Jaina texts Samavāya and Avaśayka Niryukti also contain a reference to Rşabha.422 Rşabha's name occurs in the Brāhmaṇical literature also. The Vedas make a mention of Rsabha,423 and some scholars opine that this person is none other than the Jaina tīrthamkara Rsabha.424
416. OISJ, p. 7; HJM, p. 57. 417. JI, p. 36. 418. Ibid., p. 18. 419. Ibid. 420. JAA, I, p. 14 fn 1. 421. JI, p. 50. 422. LDJC, p. 371. 423. JAA, I, Preface, vii; JOLR, pp. 41-2; CUHI, I, p. 185. 424. Ibid., CUHI, I, p. 185.
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