Ṛṣabhadeva
Ṛṣabhadeva was a king of Bhārata-varṣa and a full avatāra (descent) of Bhagavān Viṣṇu. The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells his life. He was the son of King Nābhi and Merudevī. He taught the Ṛṣabha-Gītā to his hundred sons. Then he left his kingdom, wandered as a naked avadhūta (a wanderer free of all social rules) through south India, and left his body in a forest fire in Karṇāṭaka. His eldest son was Bharata Cakravartī, and Bhārata-varṣa takes its name from Bharata.
Lineage
The Agni Purāṇa (Chapter 107) and the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa (5th Skandha) give his line like this:
- Svāyambhuva Manu, then Priyavrata, then Āgnīdhra (ruler of Jambū-dvīpa), then Nābhi (ruler of Bhārata-varṣa), then Ṛṣabhadeva.
Āgnīdhra gave the nine varṣas (regions) of Jambū-dvīpa to his nine sons. Nābhi received Bhārata-varṣa, the holy southern part of Jambū-dvīpa. From Nābhi and Merudevī, Ṛṣabhadeva was born. The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells this in the 5th Skandha, Chapter 2.
Birth as an avatāra
The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells at length that Ṛṣabhadeva was not only a great king. He was a full avatāra of Bhagavān Viṣṇu, who came in answer to the perfect yajña (fire ritual) of Nābhi. Nābhi and Merudevī held a great yajña in which all seven parts of a flawless ritual were present. The officiating ṛtvij (priests) made a stotra (hymn of praise) asking Bhagavān Viṣṇu himself to be born as Nābhi’s son. Bhagavān Viṣṇu appeared with four arms, holding the conch, the disc, the club and the lotus, and wearing the Vaijayantī garland. He said that no one was equal to him or greater than him, so there was no one better from whom to ask for a son. He said that he himself would become Nābhi’s son. Ṛṣabhadeva was born as the fulfilment of that promise. This is told in the 5th Skandha, Chapters 3 and 4.
Childhood and divine signs
Ṛṣabhadeva was born with all the divine marks. He had the Śrīvatsa mark on his chest, hands and feet like lotuses, and all the lucky signs listed in the Lakṣaṇa-śāstra. His divine qualities grew every day. Indra, king of the devas, saw the young prince’s growing power with envy and held back the rain from Bhārata-varṣa. Ṛṣabhadeva made rain fall by the power of his own tapas (austerity). From his youth he showed that even Indra’s rule stood below the will of this avatāra. The 5th Skandha, Chapter 4, tells this.
Education and marriage
Ṛṣabhadeva had the full gurukula (teacher’s house) education of a prince. He learned the Vedas and all the subsidiary sciences. When he finished, Brahmā himself honoured him with the highest ritual of completion. He was then married to Jayantī, the daughter of Indra. One hundred sons were born from this marriage. The 5th Skandha, Chapter 4, tells this.
The hundred sons
Among Ṛṣabhadeva’s hundred sons were these:
- Bharata, the eldest. He was to become the great king of all Bhārata-varṣa, and the land takes its name from him.
- The nine Nava-yogeśvaras: Kavi, Hari, Antarīkṣa, Prabuddha, Pippalāyana, Āvirhotra, Drumila, Camasa and Karabhājana. These nine became great jñānīs (knowers of the truth) and paramahaṃsas (the highest wandering renunciants). They travelled through the three worlds as teachers of the highest wisdom. They appear again in the 11th Skandha as teachers of bhāgavata-dharma (the path of devotion to Bhagavān Viṣṇu).
- The other eighty-one sons, who served as righteous kings and rulers of different regions of Jambū-dvīpa.
The 5th Skandha, Chapters 4 and 5, tells this.
The Ṛṣabha-Gītā: his teaching to his sons
Before he left the world, Ṛṣabhadeva gave his sons one of the best-known teachings in the Bhāgavatam. It is called the Ṛṣabha-Gītā. Its main points are these.
The purpose of a human birth. The human body is the most precious of all births. It is not meant for sense pleasure. It is a tool for sādhanā (spiritual practice) that leads to mokṣa (liberation). Whoever uses this birth only for pleasure has wasted it.
The sādhu. The company of realised people (sādhu-saṅga) is the greatest help towards mokṣa. It is stronger than wealth, ritual or study. A sādhu is kind to all, has no enemy, and is wholly absorbed in Bhagavān Viṣṇu.
Naiṣkarmya (action without bondage). Action done without ego, without wanting its fruit, and offered fully to Bhagavān Viṣṇu does not bind a person by karma. This is the highest path for those who must live in the world.
The avadhūta path. Beyond all ordinary dharma is the path of complete renunciation. The naked avadhūta has given up all social identity. He walks without possessions, takes whatever comes or does not come, and bears every condition with perfect calm. This was the path that Ṛṣabhadeva himself was about to take.
The 5th Skandha, Chapter 5, tells this.
Renunciation and avadhūta wandering
Ṛṣabhadeva crowned Bharata as ruler of Bhārata-varṣa and gave the care of the other regions to his other sons. Then he gave up the world completely. He did not take the usual marks of a sannyāsī (renunciant). He wore no clothes, carried no staff, spoke no word and took no disciples. He became a naked avadhūta. He wandered through Bhārata with no fixed home. He ate nothing by choice, or took whatever others had thrown away, and slept wherever night found him.
To those who saw him, he seemed mad or like an animal. He let people mock him, spit on him, throw stones at him and abuse him, and he did not react. He made no difference between pleasant and unpleasant, between food and refuse, or between honour and insult. To him all conditions were the same, because he was the pure ātmā (the self).
He wandered through these regions: Koṅkaṇa, Veṅkaṇa, Kuṭaka, Dakṣiṇa and Karṇāṭaka, which are the western coast of the Deccan and Karṇāṭaka. The 5th Skandha, Chapter 6, tells this.
Yoga-maraṇa: leaving the body in a forest fire
In a bamboo forest in Karṇāṭaka, the bamboo stalks rubbed together in the wind and made a fire. The fire spread through the dry forest. Ṛṣabhadeva entered the fire in full yoga. His prāṇa (life breath) was gathered, his mind was withdrawn, and his ātmā was absorbed in Brahman. He thus achieved yoga-maraṇa, the conscious departure from the body. The fire burned his body.
As his body burned, a wonder took place. For hundreds of yojanas (an ancient measure of distance) in every direction, the air filled with the very sweet scent of agaru (agarwood) from Ṛṣabhadeva’s departing form. This divine scent spread over the whole south country, the last gift of the avatāra to the land where he had wandered. The 5th Skandha, Chapter 6, tells this.
Ṛṣabhadeva and Bhārata-varṣa
Bharata was born from Ṛṣabhadeva. He was the first great ruler of the southern realm. Bhārata-varṣa takes its name from Bharata, and so the whole land of Bhārata (India) keeps the memory of this first king through all later ages.
The Jaina tradition also honours Ṛṣabhadeva as the first Tīrthaṅkara, Ādinātha. The Purāṇas present him as a full avatāra of Bhagavān Viṣṇu.
Sources
- Agni Mahā Purāṇa, Chapter 107
- Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 5th Skandha, Chapters 3 to 6 (Chapter 2 for the lineage)