 Thank you. So I'm happy to continue the topic of Rishabha, on which we had a few papers now already. Being the first Tirthankara, biographies of Rishabha or Adinata are particularly numerous. Naturally, one finds versions in the complete so-called universal histories, compositions termed Puranas or Charitras, which narrate the lives of the 63 Shalaka Purushas, including the 24 Tirthankaras, 12 Chakravartins and 9 Triads of Baladevas, Vasudevas and Prativasudevas. There is, for instance, the Mahapurana of Jina Sena in Gunabhadra, and the Apabramsha Mahapuranu of Pushpadanta from the 10th century, or the Chalpana Mahapuri Satcharya of Sri Lanka, also from the 10th century, but of course the most famous example is undoubtedly Himachandras, from the 12th century. But Rishabha's biography is also found in Puranic compositions where one would less expect them, such as the Jain Ramayanas and the Harivamsha Mahabharatas. Most of these Jain Puranas strive to emulate the orthodox Puranic model, offering a parallel to its Panchalakshana model of five requisite subjects, so Sarga and Pratisarga, the creation and recreation of the world, Manvantara, the intervals of the Manus, Vamsa, the dynasties of the gods, and Vamsa Anucharita, the legendary royal lineages, especially of the solar and the lunar races. This explains why so many Jain Puranic texts do not immediately commence the story after which they are named, but with the description of the universe and the different time periods, so the Utt and Avasarpenis. This parallels the Lakshanas of Sarga and Pratisarga. We are now in a degenerative period of time, the Anavasarpeni, having started out in the best possible situation, a Bhogabhumi, when people did not need to make any effort for their upkeep, so everything was growing on wishing trees, on the Kalpavrikshas, there was no fear, no disease, etc. Gradually, things are getting more unpleasant and eventually the wishing trees disappeared. At a certain point, during this Avasarpeni, people became victims to evil, and there arose a need for the institution of law and punishment. Parallel to this, 14 Kulakaras, or seven, 14 Kulakaras in the Digambara sources, seven in Svetambara sources, which are basically parallels to the Orthodox Manus were born in succession to educate the people on the changes going on around them. The last of these Kulakaras, or patriarchs, was the father of Rishabha, Nabhiraja. This links the theme of Manvantara very nicely indeed with the biography of the first Tirthankara. Moreover, according to the Jains, Rishabha is a progenitor of the Solar Dynasty, the Ikshvaku Vamsha, connecting him to the Orthodox subject of Vamshan Vicharita. So, according to some texts, his lineage was named Ikshvaku because he drank Ikshu, sugarcane from Indra, which he received from Indra when he was just one year old. And according to other texts, this has to do with the fact that Rishabha taught the people to squeeze sugarcane for its juice, so as one of the many things he taught to the people during his life as a king. Here, Rishabha is portrayed as more than just a Tirthankara, continuing the work of his father, the Kulakara. The same can be said of Rishabha installing the varnas, except of course for the Brahmana varnas, teaching the people the professions, so this Asi, Mashi, Krishi, etc. It is safe to say that in the Jain Puranas, Rishabha is more than a Tirthankara who receives and teaches the eternal Dharma. As a progenitor of the Ikshvaku Vamshah, it makes sense that his biography is told in the Jain Ramayanas since Rama is here considered one of his direct descendants. He is moreover also linked to the ruler, to the lunar or Suma or Hari Vamshah, which was started by one Suma Prabha or Suma or Shashi, the grandson of Rishabha and son of Bahubali. So, this again explains why his story is told in the Jain stories of Krishna, the Hari Vamshah Puranas or Mahabharatas or Pandavacharitas. So, in effect the corpus of Rishabha biographies is very vast and goes back to the earliest examples of Jain Puranic literature such as Vimalasuri's Palma Chariam, which at the latest dates from the 5th century and Sangadasa's Vasudeva Hindi also at the latest around the same time. But also it is found also in Jina Sena, Punatas, Hari Vamshah Puranas from the 7th century etc. Predating these texts we also find his life sketched briefly in the Shwetambra Agamas for instance in the Kalpasutra. His life is basically as follows and now I am basically summarizing what we learned yesterday. So, my summary is after the oldest three Jain Ramayanas, but it is more or less generic for the older biographies differing only in the order of the events. So, at some point during this avasarpini the Kulakaras, so either 7 or 14, were born successively to instruct the people. The last one King Nabi was married to the beautiful Marudevi. They were destined to be the parents of the Tirthankara. After all sorts of divine occurrences, so you have the goddesses coming to service the queen, the experience of either 14 or 16 dreams, rains of gemstones and golds coming from the gods etc. The boy is born. When the gods become aware of his birth, Dhanada or Kubera, the god Kubera is instructed by Indra to build the city of Ayodhya also called Saketa or Vinita for them. And here there is some slight difference with the Svitambara versions where the city of Vinita is generally built later, but also by divine intervention at the occasion of Rishabha's coronation. The child is then taken away by Indra and the other gods to be consecrated on Mount Meru as is usual for Jinnah. He is then returned to his parents and named Rishabha. The reasons given for the name giving differ in the different sources. So some say it's because of the vision of the bull as the first dream of Marudevi. Others say it's because he is the leader and then Rishabha in the secondary meaning as leader is given as the reason for the name. As he grows up the last wishing trees disappear and people come to King Nabi for help. He directs them to Rishabha for instruction. Rishabha marries and begets many sons, 100 according to most sources, and he becomes the king. And here again there is sometimes a difference in the order of events or sometimes he marries first and then becomes a king. Then one day he sees an Apsaras, the Apsaras Nilanjana who dies right in front of him and then he becomes disgusted with the material world and renounces it. In a divine palanquin he is taken to a park which is variously named but mostly referred to Siddhartha or Siddharthaka. Another name sometimes associated with this park is Prayaga. So this is the origin of Prayag being a Jain place, the place where Rishabha renounced the world. And together with many other kings he becomes an ascetic. Thereafter he starts to roam the earth until he reaches a place Hastinapura or Gajapura where he breaks his fast with Shreyamsa by drinking sugarcane juice. Rishabha then proceeds to Puri Matala and enters the park Shakatamukha where after a long period of meditation he attains Kevalajnana. The gods arrive and a Samavasarana is constructed for Rishabha to hold his first sermon. One of these people attending is a king called Rishabhasena or Vrishabhasena who becomes the first of 84 Ganadharas. After the preaching the gods depart and the Jaina leaves the park to roam around with his following. Usually the Jain Puranas here now commenced the story of Bharata and Bahubali and their struggle and their battle. And then after this and the death of Bahubali, Rishabha proceeds to Mount Kailasa or Ashtapada where he reaches the ultimate liberation or where he dies basically. The texts may differ in certain details or in the order of events but most of the story is the same. So Rishabha is the son of the Kulakara Nabi and Marudevi. His city is Ayodhya or Sakhetta or Vinita and he renounced the world after seeing Apsaras die in a park called Siddhartha. He breaks his fast with Shreyamsa in Hastinapura attains Kevalajnana in Puri Matala, roams around with the following including 84, again we have the number 84 which is interesting, 84 Ganadharas first of whom is Rishabhasena and in the end he dies on Mount Kailasa. In the older stories there is basically no great distinction along the Gambara-Shwetambara lines except for the number of dreams of the mother, 16 or 14 and the number of Kulakaras and then the order of events. Now interestingly significant changes occur in Rishabhas biographies from around the 10th, 11th century. In the Shwetambara accounts passages are inserted describing Rishabhas visits and sermons on Shatrunjaya the greatest of all Shwetambra pilgrimage sites. They further describe how his chief Ganadharah called Pundarika here in most texts attains liberation on Shatrunjaya. For this reason Mount Shatrunjaya is also sometimes called Mount Pundarika. Strikingly none of the earlier biographies of Rishabha mention Pundarika as a Ganadharah to Rishabha, but instead agree on the name Rishabhasena or Rishabhasena as the name of Rishabhas first Ganadharah. The Gambaras continue to use this name after the 11th century whereas Shwetambaras from then on either name the Ganadharah Pundarika or alternate Pundarika with Rishabhasena. Now the best known description of Shatrunjaya associated with Rishabha is probably that of the Vividhatirtakalpa of Jinnaprabhasuri from the 14th century. A famous guidebook to Shwetambara pilgrimage sites, but an earlier account is also found in the Saravali, one of the canonical Pa'inaya prakirnaka texts or the mixed texts perhaps also dating from the 11th century. The earliest Puranic account linking Rishabha with Shatrunjaya appears to be from the biography of Rishabha in Himachandra's famous narrative of the lives of the 63 great men of Jainism composed in the 12th century, so probably soon after the composition of the Saravali. In the sixth chapter of the first parvan after Rishabha attains enlightenment in a park near Ayodhya, he travels to Mount Ashtapada where a sacred preaching hall of Samavasarana is constructed by the gods for him. His son Bharata who has just become a Chakravartin visits him on this occasion and hears his sermons. Rishabha then goes to roam the world, returns again to Mount Ashtapada for sermons after which Himachandra describes how he, and then I quote from the translation of Johnson, surrounded by Pundarika and other Ganadharas went purifying the earth under pretext of wandering, mentioning the places he purified with his presence until he reached Shatrunjaya in the land of the Saurashtras. Here the story shortly abandons the rather legendary geography for a more realistic albeit idealistic version. Himachandra describes Mount Shatrunjaya in 20 verses conformed with standard poetic conventions rather than reality. The mountain is described as being 50 yojanas in circumference at its base, 10 at its peak and 8 yojanas high. And so if you basically the same height as Mount Ashtapada which is also 8 yojanas high. Rishabha ascends the mountain and enters the Samavasarana constructed there by the gods. After a three hour sermon Pundarika named as Rishabha's supreme Ganadhar, seats himself on Rishabha's footstool and himself gives a sermon on the Jain Dharma. After some days of presence on Shatrunjaya, Rishabha left to wander elsewhere instructing Pundarika to stay on Shatrunjaya. And here I quote again, you remain here on the mountain surrounded by crores of munis. Here your omniscience and that of the followers will appear soon from the power of the place. This quote unquote power of the place is again stressed in the words of Pundarika when he instructs his crores of followers to engage in Salekana a fast until death. In due course all attain omniscience and liberation and the gods come from heaven to celebrate this. Himachandra concludes, just as the master, the blessed Rishabha was the first Tirtha Krith, so Mount Shatrunjaya became the first Tirtha. And then he describes how Bharata made a shrine on Shatrunjaya where he installed a statue of Rishabha in Pundarika. Aside from Himachandra's great epic, the Sarawali and the Vivida Tirtha Kalpa and other guide books to Shwetambra pilgrimage places, this account is also found narrated in the Shatrunjaya Mahatmya by Dhaneshwarasuri. Now despite having been dated to the 5th or 7th century by early scholars such as Weber, internal evidence seems to suggest a date no earlier than the 14th century. This certainly parallels the development of the Rishabha story in the corpus of Jain Puranic and narrative literature. Several scholars estimated that Shatrunjaya may have attained some status as a sacred Jain place from around the 5th century onwards because it is mentioned on several occasions in the Shwetambra Agamas, though none of these appear to be in connection with Rishabha. Yet even though the site is not referred to in the early Puranas in connection with Rishabha, Shatrunjaya is not absent in these early Jain Puranas and other narrative literature. Pre-11th century Puranic poets, both Digambara and Shwetambara such as Guna Bhadra, Jina Sena Punata and Sri Lanka name it as a site where the Pandavas from the Jain version of the Mahabharata attain spiritual liberation, final liberation. Because these characters are not really considered great men or Shalaka Purushas, the poets do not really spend a lot of words on the description of this site or of the event. After the Shwetambaras began to associate Mahon Shatrunjaya with Rishabha, for Digambaras it simply remained the site where the Pandavas attained liberation and as such for them it was still a Siddhakshetra and worthy of respect. What is further interesting to note is that some later Shwetambara authors appear to attempt to loosen this Shatrunjaya Pandava association. So for instance in Himachandra's account of the Emancipation of the Pandavas, he refers to the mountain named Vimalas. What we see is that authors seem to want to avoid the name of Shatrunjaya itself when it comes to the liberation site of the Pandavas. Likewise we have Devendra Gani in his Tikka on the Uttaradyayana Sutra dating from the 13th century. He refrains from using the name Shatrunjaya instead using the name Pundarika for the lotus of the liberation of the Pandavas. Nevertheless Vimalas and Pundarika are known as other names of Mount Shatrunjaya. Though neither Himachandra nor Devendra Gani are explicit about this. Maladhari, Deva Prabhasuri in his Pandava Charita also names the site of liberation of the Pandavas, Mount Vimalas, but he does refer to the Munis such as Pundarika attaining emancipation at this in which he quote unquote the greatest of all Tirthas. These additions and changes to the Shwetambara accounts of the Rishabha story namely one the inclusion of Shatrunjaya as a place he visited and two Rishabha's Ganadhara named Pundarika reaching final liberation there run parallel to the history of the rise to significance of Mount Shatrunjaya as a sacred site. Despite references to a sacred site Shatrunjaya before the 10th century the oldest surviving inscription on the site dates from the year 1006 and is found on an icon representing Pundarika located near the main Adishwara temple. The Gambara accounts stay the same throughout history both regarding Rishabha's Ganadhara and the sacredness of Mount Shatrunjaya as the mountain on which the Pandavas attained liberation. It was never visited by Rishabha whose Ganadhara was known under the name of Rishabhasena.