Major Delamaine on the Srdwacs or Jains. 425 



of the four cities with walls of gold in the ocean, of which Lancet was one. 

 The mark of a bull on his foot is said to have been the cause of the choice 

 of that emblem. 



The Hindus, too, relate that this Rishabha abdicated the throne of Ayodh, 

 stript himself, and wandered towards Canca, Benga, and Carndiac. At length 

 he reached the mountain Catacdchal* and strayed through the forests there, 

 never eating unless fed by some one putting food into his mouth. These 

 forests took fire, in which the saint, regardless of the flames, perished. 



The Hindus have an (avatdra) incarnation of Vishnu (one of the twenty- 

 four) of the same name ; and in answer to my inquiries regarding him, the 

 same father and son, Nabhi and Bharata, are attributed also to him. He is 

 placed very high, as to time, in the list given me, a few after Capila, Vyasa 

 being placed near the bottom. But no two lists agree. Of this Rishabha 

 avatdra, the only information I could obtain was from a list in the 

 BJidgavata, in which it is mentioned that the doctrines of the Parama-Hansa 

 originated with him ; and I conclude, on the whole, that these Rishabhas 

 are, in fact, one and the same. 



All that we can gather from history or by the means of antiquities, 

 tends strongly to the belief that these now incompatible sects were parts 

 of one general system. Rishabha, as well as SAcYA.t CAPiLA.t and 

 Vyasa, may then have been an avatdra ; and if the Brdhmans consider 

 the avatdra Rishabha a distinct personage from him who founded the 

 Jain sect, it may be but with the same motive which induces them to 

 assert a distinct Buddha avatdra, viz. that of denying men whose memory 

 has from subsequent broils become obnoxious. At any rate, the great anti- 

 quity of Rishabha, the son of Nabhi, is attested by all. The information, 

 too, given by the chief priest at Belligola, published by Colonel Mackenzie, of 

 his writings having become obsolete, and his language not understood by 

 the common people, inducing the necessity for new books in explana- 

 tion, adds to this idea. 



• I know not where this mountain is, but it seems to be tlie same which was mentioned before 

 as the abode of the clevis, and sacred to them. 



f So called in the Islamabad inscription, 



J Capila, too, tlie Sanchya writer, is considered a different person from the Capila imme- 

 diately descended from Menu. As every celebrated person, however, was enrolled in the list 

 of avalHras, whicli are innumerable, the discrimination may not be easy or decisive. 



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