Jain Journal 1972 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 38

The Jainas attribute a remote antiquity to their religion. According to them, Jainism has been revealed again and again by various Tirthankaras whose chief mission in life was to propagate right knowledge (samyak jñāna), right faith (samyak darśana) and right conduct (samyak caritra) to the people steeped in ignorance of the reality.
Rşabha:
Rsabha was the first among the twentyfour Tirthankaras. According to Jaina accounts he was born in Kosala, and was the son of Kulakara Nabhi and queen Marudevi.
As a king, he acted more as a founder of civilisation than as a despot. King Rsabha taught his people the seventytwo arts, among which writing was the first, arithmetic the most important, and the science of omens the last. As against these seventytwo arts of men, he taught sixtyfour arts to women as well. He introduced the art of cooking, sculpture and pottery painting. He started the institution of marriage, and taught the people how to dispose of the dead.
At last, being disgusted with wordly life, he gave away his kingdom to his hundred sons, and renounced the world. That he did not fail even as a religious preacher is amply borne out by the enormous number of his followers.
Vişņu Purana and Bhāgavata Purāṇa refer to a certain Rsabha, whose life account resembles more or less to that given in the Jaina texts. The details regarding his parents, his elder son Bharata and his wandering in a naked state may be said to be identical with the Jaina account.
The Successors of Rsabha:
Twentythree Tirthankaras are supposed to have followed Rsabha. The Bhagavata Purāṇa mentions Sumati, the 5th Tirthankara. Another Tirthankara, called Aristanemi (the 22nd in the list), is connected with the Krsna legend.
Inspite of such references and the traditional accounts about them, the historians have not yet accepted the historicity of the first twentytwo Tirthankaras.
Pārsvanatha :
Parsva, the 23rd Tirthankara (8th century B.C.), was born of king Asvasena of Varanasi and his queen Vama. Leading his life for thirty