Jain Journal 2000 04

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

Page 43

NEWS ON JAINISM AROUND THE WORLD
Spiritual Affinities in Rishabha & Shiva
Like Buddha who founded Buddhism, Mahavira was not the archfounder of Jainism. According to the Jaina scriptural tradition there have been twenty three tirthankaras before Mahāvīra who propounded Jainism from time to time.
Dr S Radhakrishnan says that "The Bhagavata Purana endorses the view that Rishabha was the founder of Jainism. There is evidence to show that so far back as the first century B.C. there were people who worshipped Rishabhadeva, the first tirthankara. There is no doubt that Jainism prevailed even before Vardhamana Mahāvira or Pärśvanatha. The Yajurveda mentions the names of three tirthankaras-Rishabha, Ajitanatha, and Arishtanemi."
The idea of Rishabha tirthankaras being an epoch-making man is found deep-rooted in the Jaina scriptures. He was the son of the fourteenth kulakara or manu, known as nabhi. He is also known as Adinatha. Rishabha inaugurated the karmabhoomi and pioneered human civilisation and culture.
Rishabha was the first preacher of the ahimsa dharma, the first tirthankara or ford-maker to mokṣa according to Jaina path of purification and liberation. He attained nirvāņa on the summit of Mount Kailasa in Tibet. The point to be noted is that there is a consistent tradition found in the Jaina religious literature and also in Hindu purāņas from earliest times of invoking Rishabha Deva as Rudra or Shiva. The following stanza in Shiva Purana brings out clearly this association meaning: Rishabhadeva, Jaineshwara, the omniscient and the all pervasive incarnated himself on the magnificent Kailasa, Asthapada mountain.
It is the definite opinion of Sir John Marshall that the Vedic aryans adopted Shiva worship (Shiva-Pashupati-Rudra) from Indus valley culture. It is significant as suggested by various scholars that the nude standing images in the Indus valley in a typical Jaina ascetic yogic pose-Kayotsarga-abandonment of the body in meditation-beat a striking resemblance to the oldest Jaina sculpture and further that there is a link between the Indus bull-seals and the bull insignia, lanchhana of Rishabha.