Jainism · Beyond history, the first of 24

Rishabhanatha, Adinatha: the first Tirthankara and where to see him

ऋषभनाथ

Adinatha, first of the twenty-four: he taught people farming, writing and crafts, then gave up his kingdom; the bull marks his statues.

Rishabhanatha, also called Adinatha (“the first lord”) and Rishabhadeva or Rishabhdev, is the first of the twenty-four Tirthankaras of Jainism, the “ford-makers” who teach the way across the stream of rebirth. In Jain tradition he lived at the very beginning of the present age, as the king who taught people to farm, write and work, before giving everything up to become a monk. His sign is the bull, and he is one of the five Tirthankaras who draw the most devotion among Jains.

Story

Tradition places him at the dawn of the present age, when people still lived from wishing-trees: he gave them the plough, the alphabet, pottery and marriage, ruled as the first king and then walked away from it all. For a year no one knew what to offer a monk, and he ate nothing until Prince Shreyansa poured sugar-cane juice into his cupped hands. On that day, Akshaya Tritiya, Jains still break long fasts. His life is told in gold inside Ajmer's Nasiyan temple; his images are worshipped at Sanganer near Jaipur and at Kulpakji in Telangana.

सम्यक् प्रणम्य जिनपादयुगं युगादावालम्बनं भवजले पततां जनानाम्

“I bow to the feet of the Jina who, at the dawn of this age, was the refuge of those sinking in the sea of existence.”

Bhaktamara Stotra, 1

Places linked to them

Sanghiji Digambar Jain Temple, Sanganer · Jaipur

Kulpakji Jain Temple (Kolanupaka) · Hyderabad

Soniji Ki Nasiyan (Swarna Nagari, the City of Gold) · Ajmer

Nareli Jain Temple (Shri Gyanodaya Tirth Kshetra) · Ajmer

The first king and the first monk

Jain texts make him the son of King Nabhi and Queen Marudevi, born in Ayodhya. He had two wives, Sunanda and Sumangala, a hundred sons, among them Bharata and Bahubali, and two daughters, Brahmi and Sundari.

He is credited with opening the karma-bhumi, the age of action, when people could no longer live from wishing-trees and had to work. He taught six livelihoods: arms, writing, farming, learning, trade and crafts. The texts say he taught seventy-two arts to men and sixty-four to women.

Then he renounced the throne. The long fast that followed, about a year (Wikipedia gives some 400 days), broken with sugar-cane juice from Shreyansa, is told above; that day is Akshaya Tritiya. In his honour Svetambara Jains keep the Varshitap, a fast of about 400 days in which food is taken on alternate days. He attained liberation on Mount Ashtapada, which tradition identifies with Mount Kailash.

The Jain numbers are cosmic: a life of 8.4 million purva (an almost unimaginable unit of time) and a height of 500 bows. Most scholars consider the first twenty-two Tirthankaras prehistoric and part of Jain mythology; Jains themselves treat him as the founder of their path in this age.

Rishabha in Hindu texts

He is not only a Jain figure. The Hindu Bhagavata Purana reveres Rishabha as an avatar of Vishnu. Rishabhanatha and Rishabhdev are the same person under two forms of the name, and his name is carried by the town of Rishabhdeo in Rajasthan, home of the Kesariyaji temple, whose black stone image is venerated by Jains, Vaishnava Hindus and the local Bhil communities.

Temples with India GO notes

The four places linked above, in a sentence each. In all of them shoes and leather stay outside.

Soniji ki Nasiyan, Ajmer

A Digambar temple of 1865 dedicated to him, with Swarna Nagari behind it: a gilded model of the Jain universe that tells his story. The hall is open to all for a small ticket; the worship hall is for Jains.

Sanghiji, Sanganer (Jaipur)

Red sandstone carved in stages up to the 10th century and dedicated to Adinatha; of seven storeys only two are above ground. Free.

Nareli, Ajmer

A modern white marble complex with large seated images of Adinath and twenty-four small hillside shrines, one per Tirthankara. Free.

Kulpakji, Telangana

An ancient Svetambara tirtha about 80 km east of Hyderabad, where images of Rishabha and Neminatha stand beside a jade-green Mahavira.

Further afield

Rishabhanatha is the main deity at some of the greatest Jain sites, none of them in the India GO database yet: the hill of temples at Palitana in Gujarat, the 15th-century marble temple at Ranakpur in Rajasthan, the colossal rock-cut figure at Bawangaja in Madhya Pradesh and the rock-cut figures of Gopachal hill in Gwalior, among them a Rishabhanatha 58 feet high. At Mangi-Tungi in Maharashtra the Statue of Ahimsa, 108 feet (33 m) high, is said to be the tallest Jain idol in the world.

❓ FAQ

Are Rishabhanatha and Rishabhdev the same?

Yes. Rishabhanatha, Rishabhadeva (Rishabhdev) and Adinatha are names of the same first Tirthankara.

Is Rishabhanatha an avatar of Vishnu?

In Jainism he is a Tirthankara, not an avatar. Later Hindu texts such as the Bhagavata Purana do describe Rishabha as an avatar of Vishnu.

How many years did Rishabhanatha live?

Jain texts give 8.4 million purva, a cosmic measure of time; scholars treat these figures as mythological.

How many wives did Rishabhdev have?

Two, Sunanda and Sumangala, according to Jain tradition.

What is Rishabhanatha’s symbol?

The bull.

Why is Akshaya Tritiya linked to him?

It marks the day he broke his long fast with sugar-cane juice offered by Shreyansa; Jains break long fasts on this day.

Sources (5)

Five faiths in the app Open