________________
Vedic traditions as incarnations of Vişņu or Siva. They have accepted Ķşabhadeva as the eighth incarnation of Vișnu. In the same way Neminātha has been shown as an incarnation of Siva.
In the Buddhist work Lankāvatāra (third transformation) where numerous names of the Buddha are listed one of the names is Ariștanemi.
Col. Todd states – It appears to me that in the ancient period there were four enlightened personages. Of these the first was Ādinātha (a name of Rşabhadeva) and the second was Neminātha. To the Scandinavian people Neminātha was their primary deity known as Odin and to the Chinese their primary deity Fo.
As far as archaeology is concerned many images of Neminātha and epigraphs related to him have been found. In Prabhāsa Pattan (in Saurashtra) a copper plate of King Nebuchadnazzar of Babylon has been found. His period is accepted as 1140 BC The writings on the copper plate have deciphered and are read as follows –
"The lord of Revānagar, god of high descent, Nebuchadnazzar has come, he has come to the city (Dvārakā) of Yadurāja (king of Yādavas). He has built a temple... the Sun and submitted for ever to god Nemi who is the god of the heaven like Raivata hill."2!
In Mathura two images of the Kuśāņa period (about 2000 years back) have been found where Neminātha is sitting in lotus posture and Balarāma and Krşņa stand on his flanks.
An epigraph dating 1121 AD from Kallar Gudda (Shimoga) in southern India mentions that when Neminātha attained nirvana the city of Ahicchatra was ruled by Vişņugupta.
****
219
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
