Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 3

Author(s): R P Poddar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 116

JAINA TRADITION OF TIRTHANKARS
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as its founder and there may be something historical in the tradition which makes him the first Tirthankara”. There is evidence to show that so far back as the first century B. C, there were people who were worshipping Rishabhadeva. It has been recorded that King Kharvela of Kalinga in his second invasion of Magadha in 161 B. C. brought back treasures from Magadha and in these treasures there was the statue of the first Jaina (Rishabhadeva) which had been carried away from Kalinga three centuries earlier by King Nanda I. This means that in the 5th Century B. C. Rishabhadeva was worshipped and his statue was highly valued by his followers. From this it is argued that if Mahavira or Parshvanatha were the founders of Jainism, then their statues would bave been worshipped by their followers in the 5th Century B. C. i. e. immediately after their time. But as we get ia ancient inscriptions authentic historical references to the statues of Rishabhadeva it can be asserted that he must have been the founder of Jainism.
Other archaeological evidences belonging to the Indus Valley Civilization of the Bronze Age in India also lend support to the hoary antiquity of the Jaina tradition and suggest the prevalence of the practice of worship of Rishabhadeva, the 1st Tirthankara, along with the worship of other deities. It is very pertinent to note that many relics from the Indus Valley excavations suggest the prevalence of Jaina religion in that most ancient period.
From these archeological evidences it can be stated that there are traces of Worship of Jaina deities and that there was the prevalence of worship of Jaina Tirthankara Rishabhadeva along with the worship of Hindu God who is considered to be the prototype of Lord Shiva in the Indus Valley Civilization. This presence of Jaina tradition in the most early period of Indian history is supported by many scholars like Dr. Radha Kumud Mookerji, Gustav Roth, Prof. A. Chakravarti, Prof. Ram Prasad Chanda, T. N. Ramchandran, Champat Rai Jain, Kamta Prasad Jain and Dr. Pran Nath.
Regarding the antiquity of Jaina tradition of Tirthankaras Major J. G. R. Forlong in his book! Short Studies in th: Science of Comparative Religion') writes that from unknown times there existed in India a highly organized Jaina religion from which later on developed Brahmanism and Buddhism and that Jainism was preached by twenty-two Tirthankaras before the Aryans reached the Ganges. Dr. Zimmerman also strongly support the antiquity of Jaina tradition in the following terms. "There is truth in the Jaina idea that their religion goes back to remote antiquity, in question being that of the Pre-Aryan". (Vide Zimmerman: The Philosophies of India, p. 60).