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The Original Source of Culture - Jain Religion

 

The harmonious flow of rules and principles regulating the Indian culture, form the dawn of humanity till the present time, can safely be deemed as the original source of human civilization as they likewise harmonized the various religions and cultures of the world. From time immemorial, this essence, which has been continuously flowing, is manifest even today in the philosophy of Jainism. No doubt the word ‘Jain’ was coined in the 7th century, but in fact its antiquity is indisputable and distinctive. In present times the followers of Jainism are comparably few but the profound effect of its philosophy has clearly influenced almost all the religions and ancient civilizations of the world. In Dr Jyoti Prashad’s words: “Jainism represents one such ancient religion, whose culture although originating from a purely Indian heritage, has influenced the whole of ancient civilization. The seeds of its source and development date back to the pre historical era. Along with the birth of human civilization in ‘karma yug’, this simple mannered, soul searching religion has also made its appearance significant”.

Ajit Kumar Shastri, in his article ‘Jain Sanskriti ka Saral Adhayan’ has written, "a study in depth in the philosophy of all the religions off the world, leads to the conclusion that Jainism is the most original and ancient religion in the world”. According to the well known Philosopher Dr. Herman Jacobi - "The interest of Jainism to the student of religion consists in the fact that it goes back to a very early period, and to primitive currents of religious and metaphysical speculation which gave rise to the oldest Indian Philosophies - Sankhya and Yoga.”

By doing some research on the oldest of religious civilizations, as described by the historians, it becomes clear that the source of their foundation is based on the conception of Jainism.

Dr. Kamat Prasad reflects on these facts in his book ‘The Indian Tradition’ in a comprehensive manner. According to him-

1. Indonesia and other far eastern countries, in ancient times, had a special devotion for Animism or Animistic belief of life. The local people do believe that in ancient times their religion was in some way connected to Animism. Dr. J. Kohl makes this clear by saying that "the Jain religion is based on Pre Aryan ideas and one of these is Animism. It is the source of respect to all living beings and we can learn that Ahimsa is not only the greatest conception but also one of the most ancient in the world.” In Jainism the trees, plants, water, air, fire are all considered as life bodies. This is the hallmark of an ancient culture and which is also the highest belief in Jainism.

2. The second factor indicating its antiquity is by observing their idols. – The Jainas honor their spiritual heroes and get inspiration of spiritual perfection from their life like statues. This kind of worship has been considered as the characteristic of all primitive religions.

3. Worldly souls can be freed from the bondage of karmas. – The idea of a worldly soul having a temporary garb of an inhabiting life, which is working its way through the stages of existence towards a goal of release from the whole affair of bondage, was one of the major tenets of the Pre Aryan Philosophy of India, which is now found prominently in Jainism. (Philosophies of India. Pg. 253-61)

4. Digambaratva - Nudity has been the hallmark of a primitive religion and in Jainism it has been a fundamental principle of asceticism in its highest form.

5. Universe is ancient, eternal and permanent. The Jain universe is sterile, patterned on an ascetic doctrine. It is an all-containing world – mother without a mate, or a lonely man giant without female consort, and this primeval person is forever whole and alive . The systematization is any thing but primitive and represents a fundamentally scientific conception of the world. (Dr. Henrich Zimmer)

Regarding the antiquity of Jainism Dr. O. Pertold remarks "The Jaina tradition teaches us something quite different. This Jaina tradition is striking one and has certainly a concrete fact behind itself-Jacobi mentions that perhaps Jainism took some views from animistic religion (belief?) and this opinion of Jacobi is not unimportant as far as it relates to the Jaina belief that not only animals but also plants and even the minerals have an animated substratum of life-Jiva. Therefore I am now inclined to believe and I shall try presently to prove scientifically that Jainism is a very-very old religion-the roots of which reach back to very remote times of the pre Aryan.”

History is more often then not a reflection of that era. The events that take place in a particular time and condition should be described, as they are, by the historians without deviating form it. Unfortunately the historians of our country have done such injustice in describing our history as perhaps nowhere else! In this regard I would like to affirm that our historians have been very biased about Jainism. They have given greater importance to the Vedas and the Puranas. The present history throws no light what so ever, on the civilization and culture of the pre Vedic times. They have not been able to perceive beyond the periods of Vedas and Puranas. The history of the Shramans (ie Jains in the pre historical times) has been neglected and greater emphasis has been laid on the Vedic sources. Lack of knowledge on the part of Archeologists, and biased views and apathy by the historians are largely responsible for showing the ancient Jain material as belonging to other religions. It will not be out of place to conclude that the Indian historians have failed to give equal consideration to both, the Vedic and Shraman sources. So much so that they have even ignored the writings of ancient foreign historians who have given a balanced view of their contemporary Indian society. The credibility of the ancient foreigners and authors cannot be doubted or the importance of their writings ignored as they were neither the rulers of this country nor did they belong to the Bhramin or the Shraman cults. Their descriptions are quite informative and in fact, a valuable source to understand the Indian history in a proper perspective.

"The available history of Bharata suffers from three defects. Firstly, they present a biased view - the court historians and the subject historians are unreliable. Secondly, almost all the historians neglected the pre Aryan history of Bharata. Three foreign conquests, the Aryan, the Turko Afghan and the British changed the course of history and the texture of the culture and civilization of Bharata. The history and texture of the culture & civilization of the Pre-Aryan Bharata is conveniently forgotten. Thirdly, the Indian historians are generally undialectical and unchronological in writing the history of Bharata specially its cultural history. The reason lies in the failure of the Bharatiya historians in taking full and complete view of the gradual progress of Bhratiya life through the ages. The Bhratiya historians give undue weightage to the Vedic and Puranic sources - they by and large failed to present the blanced view of the Bharatiya history with the critical and comparitive use of these sources. Just for this reason, they have failed to rightly appreciate the foreign sources and specially the Greek sources.” – (R. K. Jain from the ‘Preface of ancient India as described by Magesthenes’)

Even if the writings of these foreign authors may not be fully logical at times, their importance for providing a creditable base cannot be questioned. Magesthenes, Ptolemy, Ariyan, Plini and others have thrown sufficient light on the pre Aryan culture of India, providing valuable evidence on the original source of ancient culture and establishing the real path for our guidance to understand ancient civilization.

The Indian history, in chronological order, is available only form the time when Alexander invaded India. After the appearance of Bhrama Aryans, the Greek invasion is very significant in unfolding the position of contemporary Indian society. Many Greek intellectuals accompanied Alexander, during his sojourn to India. One of them was Magesthenes, who came to the court of Samrat Chandragupta as an emissary of Selucas. He wrote a famous book called ‘Indica’ which is considered a reliable source of history. Today it is not available in its complete condition however some of its chapters are still traceable, which can help us form an accurate account of the Indian culture existing in that period.

In the references made by Magesthenes the word ‘Samanik’ has been used as an aberration of the original word Shraman. Alexander was highly impressed with the Sramans. In the writings of Magesthenes we find references of two nirgrantha monks called Colonis and Dandamis.

“..the Greek records which show that Alexander the great had heard of the wise sraman, the naked monks, whom the Greeks referred as Sophists.’ Dr. Bhuvannendra Kumar.

Greek culture was deeply influenced by the followers of Sophist thinkers, amongst them were well known philosophers like Sukrat, Arastu and Plato. According to Magesthenes the most highly respected people in the society were called Hylobioi or Allobioi or Arahat, Greek names for Arhant, the name attributed to the Jain Tirthankaras. ‘its Hierophants were the prophets among the Egyptions, the Chaldeans among the Assyrians, the Druids among the Gauls, the Sarmanaeans who were the philosophers of the Baktrains and the Kelts, the Magi among the Persians and among the Indians the Gymnosophists.’ (Mc. Crindle’s Ancient India)

According to the renowned historian Plini, from the period of Baccus’s rule to the time of Alexander, India was governed under the reign of 154 kings, which lasted for a period of 6451 years. During emperor Akbar’s reign, Abul Fazal, one of the ‘Navratans’ in his court, has also depicted the life of several kings and the period attributed to their reign was 4109 years. Pro. Haren in his ‘Historical Researches’ mentions that ‘Dionese’ and ‘Spetbus’ were Greek names for the Indian Kings. Count Jhonstargen in his famous manuscript ‘Theogony of the Hindus’ has mentioned that the historical records which were available in the court of King Chandragupta, were studied by Magesthenes, and based on that, he wrote in his book ‘Indica’, that during the period of 6042 years before Chandragupta, there were 153 kings who ruled over India.

According to the writings above, we have some reliable historical records of India for a period of 8500 years. Sir William John further confirmed these facts, in the editorial ‘Bacrian’, in the book named ‘Davistan’, in Kashmir. In this historical document, names of several kings have been mentioned. In this list, the first of the kings who ruled in India was 5600 years before the invasion of Alexander. (Bharatiya Sabhyata aur uska Vishvayapi prabahav. Ch 4). Captain Dryers in 1842 AD has conclusively proved in his Asiatic Journal that, 3000 yrs before Christ, there were several kingdoms in India, which had the civilization and culture of a very high order. It is indeed painful to observe that in the modern historical books there is no mention of the Pre Aryan period.

It is an important historical fact that the founder of the Mauryan Empire, King Chandragupta Maurya was a follower of the Shraman Sanskriti. Perhaps this is why the Bhramins have depicted him in a very poor light, whereas in the Jain and Buddhist canonical texts, there are vivid descriptions about the lineage of the Mauryian dynasty relating them to the Piplivan ancestry of the Kshatriyan rulers.

Magesthenes and Ptolemy have described the Pandiyan rulers to be followers of Jainism. They believed in the Matriarchal system, which was in practice even before the Aryans arrived.

‘All the pandian regions of Magesthenes and Ptolemy are historically the Krishna regions. The Krishna were the Pre Aryan, Non Aryan People of Bharat, of the Australoid Ethnic Stock and following the Shramanic Way. (Ancient India as described by Ptolemy).’

Ptolemy, a famous historian who hailed from Egypt, was born in the 2nd century. He dealt with the contemporary history of India as well as its past. ‘The Pre Aryan, the Dravidian and the Brahmani Peoples and places were clearly recognizable in the age of Ptolemy.’ According to Ptolemy The Bharatiya people despite three foreign intrusions were still vigorous and powerful people. They had kept their Shramanic way of life intact in the whole of Bharata. (Ancient India).

According to both Ptolemy and Magesthenes the Adi Sadra, Pandian Kingdom and the Ahi kingdom were all great centers of Shraman culture. Till the time of Magesthenes, the Brhama Aryans were not aware of the existence of south of India, but during Ptolemy’s time people had started traveling to that part. Southern India was predominantly a Shramanic society. The Brahman Aryans had little influence and could not establish themselves until they acknowledged the ways of the great people of the pre Aryan period.

The Brahamanas could not do without borrowing the Pre Brahmanaryan Shramanic heroes Ram and Krishna. They recast them in their own settings. The shramanised rudraism and shaaivism was also developed by them. Though the shramanic society materially suffered heavily at the hands of foreign Brahaamaryans, it celebrated its cultural triumphs over the Braahamaryans. (Mc Crindles)

Ptolemy has given explanations on the Champa kingdom. He has identified as Jabai, a place situated at the western edge of Camboj. This was a powerful kingdom. Two of their kings were very illustrious. They were Shrutvarman and his son, Shresthvarman. The word ‘Shrut’ is derived from the Jain Agam history and ‘Shresth’ is attributed to Jain businessmen.

Till this period the Brahman Aryans had not been able to establish their influence in eastern India and the Buddhists had not traveled that far to the east. Later on the Buddhists wandered towards China via the western and northern routes. Hence the Jains carried the cultural heritage, which expanded to Cambodia and Champa. The doyen of Ancient History, Dr`It is wrong to suggest that champa was a Hindu Kingdom in the 2nd century A.D. (Cultural and colonial expansion). According to historian Rooney South Vietnam was called Champa till the 2nd century A.D.

In various authentic writings historians have mentioned this fact the in ancient times the Indians established their colonies in many places outside India. The story of Bhartiya immigration dates back from the hoary past. We know such immigrations since 4000 B. C. when the known chapter of the human history opens. The Bhartiya cultural ambassadors went to Sumer, Egypt, Greece and America. The question arises as to who were these Indian who established these colonies outside India and played the role of great Ambassadors and Preachers of our ancient culture. They were neither Hindus nor Buddhists. They were the primary followers of Arhats or the Jinas of the Pani clan. The reason being that before the migration of the Aryans in India, the culture that had spread through India was Jainism. It was a well-know fact that Buddhism came into existence only 500 yrs before Christ and till that time the Brahman Aryans had not established any kingdom in India. In the Rig Veda Panis are described not only rich people but also the intellectuals.

These Panis were brave seafarers, accomplished engineers, skilled artisans, able businessmen and knowledgeable intellectuals; the Rig Veda acknowledges them as

“Sparkling like gold and jewels, accomplished in their profession, who have pride in themselves and their progeny, who are well to do, content with eating and drinking, who would cross oceans and travel around for prosperity, did not believe in Indra, who followed no Gods or ritualism, who were critical of faith in devas, who did not give charity to the rishis, who also prayed devoid of any devas, they were so dynamic that the Vedic followers were powerless before them. Thus helpless, in revulsion they would pray to Ishwara. It is from these distinguished Panis, that we have named our ancient coins as ‘Panna’ and the business world as ‘Pannya’.

This Panni race has been recognized in many parts of the world as a source of ancient civilization. Wherever they journeyed for trading, remnants of their settlements have been found. They were devotees of the Arhat culture.

The name of the country called Malaya was drawn from the Malaygiri of Bharat. From the Nilgiris to Kanya Kumari, the region is known as Malaygiri. The Sraman trader who used to go for commercial trading outside India also carried his Sramanic culture in those regions. They used to name those countries and places with Indian names. B.C. Law has defined this role by writing that they gave the name of their mountains to the whole country. In this perspective it is clear that the Jain traders would visit Burma, Siam, Malaya, Champa and other countries for trade. These merchants established their settlements in those areas where they had their business. The similarity of the names of the places with Indian regions clearly proves that their culture was greatly influenced by the ancient Indian Sramanic culture. In a similar manner, traders from those countries would visit India for commercial trading.

In an episode in Jain literature, ‘Naya dhamma kahao’ there is a description of the town Champa, from where the traders came to India through the sea route and brought goods for trading. Unquestionably, this is not the Champa of Bhaagalpur, which has been mentioned earlier, but it is the Champa of Vietnam, which is situated on the banks of river Mekon and thus very close to the sea. Similarly there are cities named Kampilya, Hastinapuri and Ayodhya in this country, which are very ancient where as those in India, are geographically, not as old.

Amongst the 24 Jain Tirthankars mentioned in the Jain canonical text, only the first and the last three can be traced in India, while rest of the Tirthankaras are distinguishable in different parts of the central and eastern Asia and southern eastern Asia. The need of the hour is to carry on a continuous research on this important issue. The temple of Ankorvat is a Jain temple without any doubt at all. The statues in this temple, which are in a Padmaasan posture and are adorned with snakes, cannot be of Lord Buddha but certainly of the Tirthankara, Lord Parswanath, who was of the Nag (snake) Dynasty. In the whole of Buddhist literature, Goutam Buddha has never been identified with any linkage to snakes, whereas almost all the statues of Lord Parsvanath all over the Country are adorned with snakes, mostly hooded. Hence Shri Jineshwar Das Jain has in his book ‘Meru Temple’ has rightly stated that According to Harisatya Mahacharya and other Archeologists “the famous statues of so called Naag Buddha are actually of Tirthankar Parsvanatha who belonged to Naag Dynasty. (Meru temples of Angkor-Jineshwar Das Jain).” Angkorvat’s Sanskrit name is Aranya Pradesh.

"The existence of Angkorvat, Angkorthan along with many statues in Ardhapadmasana posture are a sufficient proof that these areas were dominated by Sraman culture and traditions. Since these areas were the birthplace of many Tirthankaras, people from India used to visit these places as pilgrimage centers. (Jineshwar Das Jain).” In Cambodia the first earlier, Indian settlers were Jains. In Indonesia one portion of a large island is known as Sarawak.

I have already stated before that in pre Vedic era times, south India was an important center of Sraman culture. In Shri Lanka also before the advent of Buddhist religion, Jain religion was well entrenched. This has been substantially proved from old Buddhist literature. The Buddhist literature in Shri Lanka, ‘Mahavansh and the ancient text ‘Deepvansh’ mention that Jainism existed during the reign of the early 21 kings in Lanka (10 B.C. to 38 A.D), but was later destroyed by king Vattagamini.

The great scholar Panini has mentioned about Kanya Kumari in his manuscript, Asthadhyai (2, 1, 70) as Kumary Sramana. During his time, the Braham Aryans were totally ignorant about southern India and the Buddhist had moved towards south only after the arrival of king Ashoka. Thus, it is easy to understand that Jainism flourished here. Shri R.C. Jain has mentioned ‘Cape Kumari was so named after the name of the Jain female Ascetic. The concept of Kumari means a celibate woman. Tamil history has records of female ascetics traveling there.

Up till the 10th century, the influence of Jainism continued uninterrupted. The Monarchs and their empires adhered to Jainism. Over a period of time, the followers of Vishnu and Shiva, took control. They not only persecuted the Jains but also converted the Jain temples into Shiva temples. They went to such low depths of out-casting the Jains, that in one of their famous temples in south India, instructions are recorded that it is better to be trampled to death by an elephant then to seek shelter in a Jain temple. The vicious behavior of the Shivaits has done more harm to the Jains, then perhaps the mistreatment by the Musilms. In this context historian Romila Thapar has given an interview on the history of Karnataka to Hindustan Times reporter, Amit Sen Gupta for the article ‘Making up History’ that “we are now finding evidence of shaivite attacks on Jain temples, the destruction of temple, the removal of idols, the reimplanting of shaivete images in their place, this is a regular occurrence-even temples were destroyed or Jain monuments were destroyed by Hindus, particularly by shaivties.

As in Karnataka, today if the historical records of most of the Hindu pilgrimage spots like Badrinath, Kedarnath, Amarnath, Tirupatiji Balaji, Jagganathpuri, Khujrao, Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain, are carefully scrutinized, it shall become clear that they were originally Jain temples which were later converted, in the 7th century, into shaiv or vaishnav temples.

In the pre Aryan period the Brahman Aryans considered the Sramans as primitive and demons or Asuras. However, actual fact was that the Sramans were highly organized and more culturally refined then them. These Aryans, before they first came in contact with the Sramans, were plundering invaders and uncouth people.

“The Brahmans believed in the materialistic life while the Sramans in the spiritual one. The Brahmans knew no penance, meditation and fortitude”.

According to Dr. Zimmer “Jainism represent the thinking of the non Aryan people of India and believed that there is truth in the Jaina idea that their religion goes back to a remote antiquity in question being that of the Pre Aryan so called Dravidian period which has recently been dramatically illuminated by the discovery of a series of great late stone age cities in the Indus valley dating from the third and perhaps even to the forth millennium B.C.”

Short Studies In The Science Of Comparetive Religion (Pg.243-44) clearly mentions-"There was also existing throughout upper India an ancient and highly organized religion, philosophical, ethical and severely ascetical viz Jainism. Out of which clearly developed the early ascetical feature of Brahamanism and Buddhism.”

Any culture or religion that comes into existence has a singular source. Unfortunately our biased historians, ignorant of our rich antiquity, have proclaimed that from the beginning there were two different cultures, these are Arhat and Bharat. It is a natural phenomenon that the root cause is always one and no two cultures can be born at the same time. Diversified concepts of culture are born from the main cultural stream. The Bharat culture, which represented Vedic culture, was in-fact introduced for the first time by Marichi and his disciple, Kapila. Marichi was the grandson of Lord Rishabh Dev who was the founder of Arhat culture. In pre Vedic era the Sraman culture was known as Arhat. In the famous ‘Navkar Mantra’ of Jains the first salutation is made to Arhants. The Arhant heritage is confirmed by the writings in Srimad Bhagwad, Padmapuran, Vishnupuran, Skandapuran and Shivpuran and other religious book. In these books there are lucid descriptions on the birth of Jainism. As a matter of fact, the standard of philosophy, which the Arhat religion commands, is clearly manifested, albeit some changes, in the Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharat and the Puranas. Thus the influence of Sramanic culture, on the Aryans is unquestionable. They have drawn many ideas from the Sramanic religious literature so much so that in the Vedic text, which is Yoga Vashist’s classification on renunciation, called ‘Yoga Vashisht ke Vairagia Prakaran’, (pg 15-8) Lord Rama has been mentioned to have expressed his desire to follow the soul searching meditation for seeking solace and peace preached by Jinendra. ‘naaham ramo na me vancha, bhaveshu cha na me mana, shanty maa situ michaami, vatmaniya Jinao yatha’.

We come across the word ‘Arhat’ being described in the Rigved, thus it is clear that even prior to the writing of Rigved, India had been deeply influenced by the Arhats.

Anavaranam Rishabhm mamdri jinahm brihaspati vardya navayamarke, (Rigved 1 su0 160 m0)

Mishtbhani gyani, stuti yogya Rishabh ko puja sadhak mantro dwara vardhit karo ve stoat ko nahi chodte.

Aho mucham Rishabhm yagiyanamvirajant pratham madhvaranam apaam na paat mashvina hue indriyen indriya datt mojah: (Atharvaved 19-42-4).

Sampurna paapo se mukt, ahimsak vratiyo ke pratham raja, aditya swaroop shri Rishbhdev ka mei ahawan karta hoo. Ve mujhe buddhi, indriyabal aur atma bal pradan kare.

Naaabhirmarudevyaam putramjan yadrishabhnaamaan, tasya bharto putrascha taavapraj tasya bharatsya

Pitaa Rishabh, hemaadrerdakshinam varsha mahat bharatam nami shashaas. (Baraah Puran 74)

Naabhi ne Maarudevi me Rishabh naamak putra ko paida kiya. US Rishabh kaa sabse badaa putra Bharat thaa. Bharat ke pita Rishabh ne Himaalaya ke dakshina me Bharat varsh per shaashan kiya.

A great research scholar in old school of knowledge, Dr. Herman Jacobi has clarified in his book (pg 9) that "no evidence exists showing that Parasnath was the founder of Jain religion. Jain tradition recognizes Rishabh as the founder and first Tirthankar of their religion.

Rishabhnath, in the Vedic literature, especially the Rig Ved, can be accepted as the same founder of both the Brahaman and the Sraman religions. He is recognized as the point of integration between them. Apart from Shri Rishabhdev there are references of other Jain Tirthankars in Vedic literature. Mr. B. R. Kundu has confirmed it in the case of Tirthankar Sumatinath "We also learn from the Bhagwat Purana that the Tirthankar Sumati followed the path of Rsabha.”(J.J. 1981 Pg. 67).

In order to understand the original source of Indian culture, apart from Veda and other ancient sources, we can certainly draw fountainhead of knowledge from the remains of Mohan-Jodaro and Harrappa. Both these relics establish the presence of Sramanic culture overflowing the ancient civilization.

Mohan-Jodaro and Harrappa represent the culture of pre Vedic era. The seals containing the icon of bull (Brishav) and of meditating yogis, clearly indicate the Sraman school of thought. Undoubtedly the Sramanic culture existed in India, not only prior to the composition of Rig Veda, but was the foremost and principal stream of cultured civilization.

Dr. Thomas Mcevilley of Rice University of Los Angeles and Dr. Katherine Harpar of Loyola Marymount University further strengthen the suggestion that “there existed Pre Aryan Jain tradition in the Indus Valley.”

According to Prof. A. Chakraborti- "The religion of Ahimsa or no violence was the basic principle of Pre Aryan civilization in India is known to the scholars, who carefully studied the Indus Valley as revealed by the excavations of Mohan-Jodaro and Harappa. Thus to the great surprise of the experts, they found no weapons for the purpose of offence and defence. From the absence of destructive implements, the experts have come to the conclusion that the people of the Indus Valley civilization did not entrust themselves in wagging was with anybody.”

The influence on Indus valley civilization is a contribution of the Sraman culture. There is no indication of any existence of the Vedic religion. Hence the Arhat school of thought is the original main stream of civilization. "The religion of the Jinas can be traced before the advent of the vedic Aryans to the Pre historic period in India. The first of these Jinas was Rsabha whose bull insignia is found in Indus valley civilization.”

Shri T. N. Ramchandran (Joint director of Indian Archeologists) has clearly stated that “we are perhaps recognizing in Harappa statue a full fledge Jain Tirthankara in the characteristic pose of physical abandon (kayot sarga). The statue under description is therefore a splendid representative specimen of this thought of Jainism at perhaps its very inception.”

At Kankali Tila in Mathura a deity of Suvrat Swami whose insignia is tortoise, was discovered. One of the nude statues in Mohan-Jodaro has the tortoise insignia, which indicates that it must be of Suvrat Swami. In Vedic history there are descriptions of a Muni in the Puran, connected to the tortoise, which throws light on Muni Suvrat. In the Rigved (23, 27, 32) a sage with tortoise insignia has been mentioned whom we believe as Tirthankar Muni Suvrat Swami. It connection with the tortoise the Puran (40, 27, 41) writes that Vishnu appeared in the form of tortoise in Rishabh race.

 

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