Jain and Vedic traditions: a shared heritage

Rishabhdev in the Bhagavata Purana

In the fifth book of the Bhagavata Purana the line runs: Priyavrata, son of Svayambhuva Manu (5.1.22); Priyavrata’s son Agnidhra, who became king of Jambudvipa (5.1.24–25, 5.2.1); and Nabhi, first of Agnidhra’s nine sons (5.2.19). Wishing for a son, Nabhi performs a sacrifice with his wife Merudevi, and the Lord appears (5.3.1–2). The Lord says a son like himself is hard to find, so he will himself descend, as a portion, in the house of Agnidhra’s son (5.3.17–18). In the Gita Press and Bhaktivedanta editions verse 5.3.20 says he descended in Merudevi’s womb to show the dharma of the “vatarashana shramana” sages; this verse is not in the Sanskrit text on GRETIL.

Because of the child’s excellence his father named him Rishabha (“the best”) (5.4.2). Of Rishabha’s hundred sons the eldest was Bharata, after whom this land is called Bharatavarsha (5.4.9). Rishabha teaches his sons (5.5), gives the kingdom to Bharata and leaves as a sky-clad avadhuta (5.5.28), and at the end his body is burnt in a forest fire near Kutakachala in Konka, Venka and Kutaka in south Karnataka (5.6.7–8). The Bhagavata counts him among the avatars: the eighth, son of Nabhi and Merudevi (1.3.13); in 2.7.10 his mother is named Sudevi.

The Bhagavata then says (5.6.9–11), in the form of a prophecy, that a king of Konka, Venka and Kutaka named “Arhat” will imitate Rishabha’s conduct and in the Kali age start a path the Purana calls improper. The Sanskrit does not contain the word “Jain”; the sentence “That was the beginning of the Jain dharma” in the Bhaktivedanta translation is the translator’s, not the text’s. Jain texts tell Rishabhdev’s life quite differently, as the first Tirthankara of their own dharma.

Rishabhdev in Jain texts

The Kalpa Sutra (Jacobi’s translation) calls Rishabha the “Kosalian” Arhat (§ 204); by Jacobi’s note because he was born in Kosala, that is Ayodhya. He was conceived “in Ikshvakubhumi” in Marudevi, wife of the kulakara Nabhi (§ 206); the kulakaras were the first kings and founders of families, and Nabhi the seventh and last. He had five names: Rishabha, First King, First Mendicant, First Jina and First Tirthankara (§ 210). He taught 72 sciences, from writing to omens, and a hundred crafts, anointed his hundred sons as kings and renounced the world from the town of Vinita (§ 211); he attained omniscience (§ 212) and nirvana on Mount Ashtapada (§ 227).

The story of the name Ikshvaku: by Hemachandra’s Trishashti-shalaka-purusha-charitra (book 1, chapter 2), when the child Rishabha was nearly a year old Indra came with a stalk of sugarcane, the child reached for it, and so Indra named his family “Ikshvaku”. Jinasena’s (Digambar) Adipurana (16.264) gives another reason: the Lord taught people to press the juice of sugarcane, and so he was called Ikshvaku. Vimalasuri’s Paumachariyam (5.1–3) says that of the four great lineages on earth the first is the Ikshvaku, carried on by Bharata’s son Adityayasha.

Rama: the Valmiki Ramayana and the Paumachariyam

In the Valmiki Ramayana Vasishtha recites Rama’s line: from the unmanifest Brahma, from Brahma Marichi, from Marichi Kashyapa, from Kashyapa Vivasvan, and Vivasvan’s son Vaivasvata Manu; Manu was the first Prajapati and his son Ikshvaku the first king of Ayodhya (Bala Kanda 70.19–21 in the Gita Press numbering; 1.69.17–19 in the critical edition). The same genealogy comes again in the Ayodhya Kanda (2.110.5–7; 2.102 in the critical edition). From there the line runs through Kukshi, Vikukshi and others to Dasharatha and his sons Rama and Lakshmana (1.70.43).

Vimalasuri’s Paumachariyam is a Jain telling of the Rama story in Prakrit, in which Rama is also called Pauma (Padma). In it King Shrenika asks the Ganadhara Gautama about the lineage and story of “the eighth Baladeva” (20.2). In every cycle of Jain time there are nine Baladevas, nine Vasudevas and nine Prativasudevas; in the Paumachariyam the eighth Baladeva is Rama, the eighth Vasudeva Lakshmana and the eighth Prativasudeva Ravana (20.199–204). Lakshmana kills Ravana with the discus (canto 73). After Lakshmana’s death Rama takes diksha (canto 114), attains omniscience (canto 117) and nirvana (canto 118). King Dasharatha is of the Ikshvaku family and rules at Saketapuri (Ayodhya).

The Paumachariyam itself says it was composed 530 years after Mahavir’s nirvana (118.103). Scholars do not agree on its date: by its editor V. M. Kulkarni, Jacobi placed it around the third century CE, and Kulkarni accepts this; other scholars have given the first century CE and later dates.

One name, two lines

In the Bhagavata Purana Rishabhdev belongs to the first manvantara: the first Manu of this kalpa is Svayambhuva (8.1.4), and Rishabha is of the line of his son Priyavrata (5.6.14). Rama belongs to the line of the seventh Manu: Shraddhadeva, son of Vivasvan, that is Vaivasvata Manu, is the seventh Manu (8.13.1), Ikshvaku is his son (9.1.11–12; born from Manu’s sneeze in 9.6.4), and in this line come Raghu, Aja, Dasharatha and Rama (9.10.1–2). So the Puranas place Rishabhdev and Rama in two different manvantaras and two different lines.

In Jain texts the name Ikshvaku begins with Rishabhdev himself (Hemachandra; Adipurana 16.264), and this line runs on from his son Bharata down to Dasharatha and Rama (Paumachariyam 5.3). So the two traditions use the name “Ikshvaku” for lines that begin differently. The comparison is ours; each side comes from its own texts.

Ayodhya in Jain tradition

By Hemachandra’s Trishashti-shalaka-purusha-charitra, Ayodhya (also called Vinita) is the birthplace of five Tirthankaras: the first, Rishabhdev (Adinath), the second, Ajitnath, the fourth, Abhinandannath, the fifth, Sumatinath, and the fourteenth, Anantnath. The Kalpa Sutra uses “Vinita” for Rishabha’s town and Jacobi’s note says “Kosala or Ayodhya”; the Paumachariyam calls Ayodhya Saketapuri (28.94).

The official website of Ayodhya district also gives the birth of these five Tirthankaras at Ayodhya, and mentions the Shwetambar Jain temple and the “Badi Murti” temple at Raiganj, with a 31-foot image of Rishabhdev.

Diwali in both traditions

In the Jain tradition Diwali marks Mahavir’s nirvana: by the Kalpa Sutra (§§ 123–128) he attained nirvana at Pava on the night of Kartik Amavasya, and kings lit lamps saying that the light of knowledge had gone and they would make a light of matter; Jinasena’s Harivamsha Purana (66.19–21, 783 CE) says that since then the people of Bharata have honoured the Jina’s nirvana every year with the “Dipalika”.

In the Hindu tradition Diwali is the festival of Lakshmi puja, and the tradition of north India links it with Rama’s return to Ayodhya after the slaying of Ravana (see our Diwali page). The Valmiki Ramayana describes Rama’s welcome, on Bharata’s orders: worship of the gods, music, flowers, parched grain and flags on every house, to be ready by sunrise (Yuddha Kanda, critical edition 6.115.2–8, 6.127 in the Gita Press numbering); we found no mention there of lamps lit for the occasion. The two traditions light lamps on the same night, each for its own reason.

Where the traditions and sources differ

• Rishabhdev’s mother: Merudevi in the Bhagavata 1.3.13 and 5.3, Sudevi in 2.7.10; Marudevi in the Jain texts.
• Bhagavata 5.3.20 (“vatarashana shramana”): in the Gita Press and Bhaktivedanta editions, not in the Sanskrit text on GRETIL, where the verses of 5.3 are numbered one lower.
• Why the name Ikshvaku: reaching for the sugarcane Indra brought (Hemachandra) or teaching people to press sugarcane juice (Adipurana 16.264).
• The Ramayana’s numbering: the Bala Kanda genealogy is 1.70.19–43 in the Gita Press numbering and 1.69.17–30 in the critical edition; in the Ayodhya Kanda 2.110 and 2.102.
• The Paumachariyam’s date: by its own text 530 years after Mahavir’s nirvana; scholars’ views range from the first to the third century CE and later.

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