Religion and Culture of the Jains

Author(s): Jyoti Prasad Jain
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
They were Sumati, Pratiśruti, Sīmankara, Sīmandhara, Kṣemankara, Kṣemandhara, Vimalavāhana, Cakṣuṣman, Yasasvan, Abhicandra, Candrabha, Prasenajit, Marudeva and Nabhiraya. Nature had not remained so benevolent as before, doubts and conflicts had begun to appear, and these earliest leaders of man met the situation in their own simplest ways.
The last of them, Nabhiraya, had for his spouse Marudevi who bore to him Ṛṣabha or Ādinātha, (the 15th Manu law-giver) and the first Tirthankara (expounder of religion), at the place which later developed into the city of Ayodhya (presently in the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh). Rṣabha is supposed to be the harbinger of human civilization. He inaugurated the karma-bhūmi (age of action), founded the social order, family system, institutions of marriage, of law and order and justice, and of state and government; taught to mankind the cultivation of land, different arts and crafts, reading, writing and arithmetic, and built villages, towns and cities; in short, he pioneered the different human activities as they were then understood and indulged in.
He is also known as Ikṣvāku, Svayambhu and Mahadeva. He had two daughters and a hundred sons. After having guided his fellow beings for a considerable time and fulfilled his mundane functions, Rṣabha abdicated all temporal power in favour of his eldest son, Bharata, who gave his name to his country and become its first cakravartin ruler or paramount sovereign. Having renounced at worldly possessions and authority, Rṣabha repaired to the forest to lead a life of penance and austerity. He attained kaivalya-Jñana, supreme knowledge, and became an arhat or jina at what is now Prayaga (Allahabad). For a number of years he then preached to the suffering mankind his peace and liberation giving creed of love and nonviolence. He was the first preacher of 'ahimsa dharma', the first prophet of salvation. In the end he attained nirvana at Mt. Kailāśa (in Tibet). It was now the fourth age of time-cycle.