Life of Adinath Rishavdev, the 1st Tirthankar

 Adinath Rishavdev, the 1st tirthankara 

Rishavdev is the 1st tirthankara in the avasarpini time cycle, according to Jainism. He is also known as Adinath which means "Lord of beginning". He is mentioned in the Rig-veda by the Hindus. He was perhaps the first religious leader on earth. His complexion is golden and symbol is bull. The chaitya tree is vata under which he meditated and attained omniscience (kevaljnan).

Adinath Rishav is the first tirthankara mentioned in the Adipuran. He was born when the world had passed out the happiest stage Sushma and was in the 3^rd era of Sushma Dushma.  Rishav belonged to Kasyap gotra. He was born in Kosala as the son of Marudevi (mother) and (kulakara) Nabhi (father). He is familiar by the following names: Adinath, Rishav, first monarch, first mendicant, first Jina and first Tirthankara. He is thought to be the human avtar of Lord Shiva according to Hindus.

The mother of Rishavdev in her dream had seen a bull (rishav) coming towards her, hence the parents decided his name as Rishav. When he was in the mother’s womb, Maru Devi dreamt 14 items in her dream, they are: an elephant, a bull, a lion, perfume, a garland, moon, sun,  symbol, a lotus lake, a celestial abode, heap of jewels and blazing flame. This was an indication of a noble, blissful, auspicious and fortunate birth of a chakravarti or a tirthankara. 

Adinath was born in the month of Chaitra on the eighth day of the dark half of the moon in Uttarasadha constellation. He lived as a prince for 20 lacs purva and as a monarch for 63 lacs purva. Rishavdev was a great leader. He showed his leadership in all spheres of society.  He constructed the total structure of the primordial society and created  separate castes according to the profession viz., brahman, kshatriya, vaisya and sudra. He was the founder of ancient culture. He organized all aspects of life, be it social, political, economic or spiritual. For his enormous contribution towards the society, Rishavdev became popular as Adinath or the 1^st Lord. During his reign as monarch, Rishavdev developed 72 arts for men, 64 crafts for women, 100 economic crafts and 4 types of professions. According to Kalpa sutra, of the 72 arts, first in the list was writing, the most important was arithmetic and the last one was the knowledge of the meaning of omens. The science of script which he developed was named as Brahmi script after the name of his daughter Brahmi. Brahmi is the origin of the present Indian scripts of northern and southern India, including Devnagari script.

 Rishavdev had 100 sons and two daughters. His son Bharat was the 1^stChakravarti. It is believed, that from the name of Rishavdev’s son Bharat, our country was named Bharatvarsha (India). Another son of Rishavdev who attained Keval jnan was Bahubali. His statue has been built during 10^th century AD by the Ganga dynasty. It is a monolithic statue made up of a single stone by carving. It is situated on a hill in Shravanbelgola, in Karnataka. The statue is in kayotsarga posture that means standing erect. It is said that he had meditated for 12 years and plants grew around his legs. After keval jnan he became popular as Gommateshwara or Kammateshwara. The grandson of Rishavdev, Marichi, selected the path of asceticism at a young age. But he could not bear the harsh rules of monkhood and became parivrajak. It is believed that after several births Marichi was born as Vardhaman Mahavir, the 24^th tirthankar.

Rishavdev completed all his duties as a father and anointed his 100 sons as kings of different provinces. After that, he decided to renounce worldly life and became a monk. He left the palace and went to the park, named Siddharthavana where accepted mendicancy.  As a monk Rishavdev was most exacting and disciplined. He made no compromise in his mission. Although he was a king in his early days, but after becoming a monk, he became truly homeless (anagara) and tie free (nirgrantha). Rishavdev had no desire of objects, of space, of time and sensual feelings. He spent eight months of summer and winter, one night in a village not more than five nights in a town. During mendicancy he restricted food and water intake and concentrated totally on his final goal. After exercising extreme penance and meditation, he attained keval jnan after eight months in the month of Phalgun on the eleventh day of the dark cycle of moon in Uttarasadha constellation. Kevaljnan activates the soul and thus one can see past, present and future (trikaldarshi) all-knowing, all-seeing, by the power of soul without the aid of organs or senses.

On his attaining omniscience under the banyan tree (vata), a congregation was held where he spoke about his experiences during monkhood. His leadership quality was again proved when he organized tirtha consisting of monks, nuns, sravaks and sravikas (male and female followers). In this way, he became the 1^st tirthankar. He named 84 ganadharas. His teaching was accepted by 20000 omniscients, 9000 masters in avadhi knowledge, 12650 logicians and a large number of male and female followers. He initiated the formation of sutras, sutrarthas, dravyas, gunas, paryayas and nyayas and made a complete religion. This has historical significance as no other religion was existent during the period of Rishavdev.

Rishavdev travelled all over the country and imparted his teachings to the people. This has been mentioned in Bhagavat Purana where it is written that Rishavdev had travelled Konka, Venkata and Southern Karnataka. Everywhere he was accepted by local people and they became follower of his religion.

Rishavdev lived long life of 1000 years on earth. On exhaustion of his Karma, he decided to end his life.  During his last days on this earth, he moved to the Astapada (Mt. Kailash) with 10000 monks and on the 13^th day of the dark half of Magha, while he was meditating in samparyanka posture, he passed away by entering into liberation (Nirvana).

The Shasandev was Gomukh Dev and Shasan Devi was Chakreswari Devi who were the messenger deities of Lord Rishavdev.

Rishavdev was mentioned with great reverence in the Vedic literature where the following hymn was dedicated to him: “Oh Divinity! Do thou produce amongst us, of high descent, a god like Rishavdev who, by becoming an arhat, which is the epithet of the First World teacher, may become the destroyer of the enemy   – Rig-Veda X, 12, 166.

The hymn dedicated to Rishavdev in the Bhagavat Puran clarifies the same view point – “Salutation to Rishavdev, who propagated the path of absolute peace to the barbaric and disdained people. Glory to him who by attaining the noblest platform of self-realization became free from the eternal bondage of desires. It is to him, Rishavdev, I pay my tributes”.