Risabha Deva

Author(s): Champat Rai Jain
Publisher: Jain Mitra Mandal

Page 86

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RISHABHA DEVA is permissible to regard the Vedic Rishabha to be the sou of the Patriarch Nabhi and his wife Marudevi and the founder of Jainism in this cycle of time, as is evident from the Hindu Bhagwat (2.7-10) itself. This agreement of the Jaina and the Brahmanical texts is so striking and singular that we cannot deny its validity. 12 Nor are wanting Vedic scholars, like Prof. Virupaksh Wadiyar, M. A., Veda Tir-tha, 13 who clearly admit, that the Rishabha of the Rigveda hymn is the same as the first Tirthankara of the Jainas.
Likewise, the epigraphical evidence also bears testimony to the real personality of Rishabhadeva. Certain aucient seals from Mohen-jo-Daro finds may be referred to in this connection. Nudity, Posture of the body and the pose of the eyes of the figures engraved on them 14 are the characterising elements and marks of the Jain images. Rai Bahadur Prof. Ramprasada Chanda M. A. remarks rightly about them, when he writes.
"Yoga or religious meditation is the common element of all historic Indian religions with the exception of Vedic ritualism .......... The Kayotsraga (dedica12. Prof. Stevenson remarked that "It is so seldom
that Jainas and Brahmanas agree, that I do not see how we can refuse them credit in this instance, where they do so."
Kalpasutra, Intro. XVI. 13. Jaina-Patha-Pradarshaka, III, 3, 106, 14. Marshall, Mohen-Jo-Daro (London 1931.) Vol. I
pp. 52-78.