Historicity of Rishabha and Links With Indus Valley Civilization
Based on archeological and literary evidence. P. C. Roychoudary puts the date of Rishabha at the end of the Stone Age and the beginning of the Agriculture age. Contemporary historians like Ramaprasad Chanda, Vilas Sangave, Heinrich Zimmer, John Marshall, Thomas McEvilley P.R. Deshmukh and Mircea Eliade are of the opinion that there exists some link between Rishabha and Indus valley civilization.
Ramaprasad Chanda, who supervised Indus Valley Civilisation excavations, states that, “Not only the seated deities on some of the Indus seals are in Yoga posture and bear witness to the prevalence of Yoga in the Indus Valley Civilisation in that remote age, the standing deities on the seals also show Kayotsarga (a standing or sitting posture of meditation) position. The Kayotsarga posture is peculiarly Jain. It is a posture not of sitting but of standing. In the Adi Purana Book XV III, the Kayotsarga posture is described in connection with the penance of Rishabha” This is the posture in which Rishabha is believed to have entered kevala. Authors such as Christopher Key Chappel and Richard Lannoy support the Jain interpretation of these seals.
Christopher Key Chappel also notes some other possible links with modern Jainism. Seal 420, unearthed at Mohenjodaro portrays a person with 3 or possibly 4 faces. Jain iconography frequently depicts its tirtahnkaras with four faces, symbolizing their missionary activities in all four directions. In addition, Depictions of a bull appear repeatedly in the artifacts of the Indus Valley. Lannoy, McEvilly, and Padmanabh Jaini have all suggested that the abundant use of the bull image in the Indus Valley civilization indicates a link with Rishabha, whose companion animal is the bull.
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