Rishabha
Rishabha South and Central AsiaSon of semi-divine parents–his father is sometimes regarded as one of the fourteen Manus—Rishabha was the first tirthankara, and founder of Jainism. He had one hundred sons. Relinquishing his kingdom to Bharata, the eldest son, he retired to a hermitage, where he led a life of such incredible austerity that he was no more than a bag of skin and bones on his death. Although the theme of abdication and retirement is a perennial one in India, the Jaina doctrine of the karmic bondage of the soul, a profound sense of contamination in daily experience, meant that those who sought spiritual release had to detach themselves utterly from ordinary existence. To Sravana Belgola, the granite eminence sacred to the Jains in Mysore, came the aged Chandragupta Maurya, having taken a similar vow of renunciation and travelled southwards with his guru, Bhadrabahu. This monarch had come to power in 322 BC, five years after the raid of...
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