Rishabha (Hinduism)


In Hinduism, Rishabha is one of the twenty four avatars of Vishnu in the Bhagavata Purana. Some scholars state that this avatar is same as the first Tirthankara of Jainism. Rishabha is also found in Vedic literature, where it means the "bull" and is an epithet for Rudra.
According to John E. Cort and other scholars, there is a considerable overlap between Jain and Hindu Vaishnava traditions in western parts of India, with both religions adopting each other's sacred figures such as Jain texts adopting Vishnu avatars Krishna and Rama, while Hindu texts adopted Rishabha and his son Bharata.

Vedic Literature

The Vedas mention the name Rishabha. However, the context in the Rigveda, Atharvaveda and the Upanishads suggests that it means the bull, sometimes "any male animal" or "most excellent of any kind", or "a kind of medicinal plant".
According to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a professor of comparative religions and philosophy at Oxford who later became the second President of India, there is evidence to show that Rishabha was being worshipped by the first century BCE. The Yajurveda, states Radhakrishnan, mentions the name of three Tirthankaras – Rishabha, Ajitanatha and Arishtanemi, and that "the Bhāgavata Purāṇa endorses the view that Rishabha was the founder of Jainism". It is an epithet for the bull in the Rigveda:
Translation:
Other examples of Rishabha appearing in the Vedic literature include verses 6.16.47 of Rigveda, 9.4.14–15 of Atharvaveda, 3.7.5.13 and 4.7.10.1 of Taittiriya Brahmana, etc.