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The Indus Valley Civilisation
and Rsabha
V. G. Nair
The discovery of Indus Valley Civilisation seems to have thrown a new light on the antiquity of Jainism. The time assigned by the scholars to this culture on the archaeological and other grounds is 3000 B.C. It seems that the people of Indus Valley were highly civilised and cultured. Their culture, however, is ascribed to the Dravidians who, according to the Jaina tradition, were the devout followers of Śramana religion as preached by Lord Ṛsabha, the first Tirthankara and contrary to Vedic beliefs. As they were the followers of Jainism, the Dravidians are styled as Vrätyas along with the Licchavis, Jñātrs, etc., by Manu. Likewise the Asuras were also the followers of Jainism. The Brāhmaṇas say that the Asuras were progeny of Prajapati (who was no other than Rṣabha) and they were hostile to Vedic Aryans (Rg. 1,174,5). In Brahmanic Visnu and Padma Purana it has been clearly stated that Jainism was preached by a naked monk called Mahāmoha among the Asuras, who lived on the banks of the Narmada. This region is regarded as a place of pilgrimage by the Jainas even today. Sir John Marshall rightly notes that "a comparison of the Indus Valley and Vedic cultures shows incontestably that they were unrelated. The Vedic religion is normally un-iconic. At Mohenjodaro and Harappa iconism is every where apparent. In the houses of Mohenjodaro the firepit is conspicuously lacking."
It is a fact that the Jainas are the first Indian people who took to iconism in their religious worship and made the images of their Tirthankaras which resemble those found at Harappa and Mohenjodaro. The Harappa statuette is a male torso in nude form which resembles the torsos found at Lohanipur (Patna). Dr. K. P. Jayaswal assigned the latter to Mauryan and Sunga periods respectively and declared that "it is the oldest Jaina image yet found in India, as it must belong at the latest to the Mauryan period." (JBORS, March, 1947). In the face of similarities. the nude torso of Harappa seems to
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