Post 2/?
Am pasting from the Monier-Williamws (MW) Skt dictionary in that it is useful in this matter: the MW lists the source/use of Skt words as well as the approximate meanings (in said sources). The following gives a summary of what these two words meant/who they referred to in the various contexts of their uses:
This much becomes apparent even from the various meanings given in the entries:
- can see how in Vedic Skt, which is the original source of these words, both RiShabha and ariShTanemi have a basic meaning ("bull" etc, and "the felly of whose wheel is unhurt", respectively), can be used as descriptives, as well as [consequently] being epithets/proper names of several Vedic personages.
- can also note how in the, much later, Jain uses of these original Vedic Skt words, these become names for Jain characters. Characters distinct from the Vedic persons and epithets who since much earlier had possessed of/been referred to by these names and epithets.
Can work out from this that Jain references to Jain teerthankaras called Rishabh(a) and Neminath(a) "aka the Jain Arishtanemi" are simply speaking of entirely different entities to what the Vedic Hindus (and Hindu works like the MBh~Harivamsha) spoke of. Moreover, the very Vedic texts - the very ones which use the Vedic meanings of R^ishabha and [edited typo] ariShTanemi to refer to Vedic persons or as Vedic descriptives - do not know of the Jain Teerthankaras that would later be given these names. (Same as how Vinayaka and Heramba were originally Hindu epithets/proper names for Ganapati and which names were later incorporated by Buddhism as epithets for Buddhism - which is an example already covered in an earlier post somewhere in this thread.)
Further, the Vedic - i.e. original - meanings of the Vedic Skt words arhat, arhanta, arhasi, arhaNa and arha are apparently related, meaning: deserving/worthy, as well as worship and the like. (Being descriptives, they are therefore also famous personal names and epithets of the Hindu Gods: IIRC, arha is a name of Indra, arhanta is a name of Shiva.) And "deserving/worthy" and "worship" etc are the meanings in which this set of words - the ones prefixed above on arha* - is used in the Vedas.
However, Jainism tries to retrofit Vedic references to words like "arhan/t" (like Buddhism nowadays does with other Hindu texts) as being a reference to the later Jain/Buddhist meaning of Arha(n)t - capital A for distinction. I.e. they choose to read it as being a reference ShramaNas (capital Sh).
But that is beside the point, as the next few posts go through all the occurences of the words Rishabha, Arishtanemi and arha* in the Rig Veda Samhita (there aren't that many references) and so can make up one's own mind.
Am pasting from the Monier-Williamws (MW) Skt dictionary in that it is useful in this matter: the MW lists the source/use of Skt words as well as the approximate meanings (in said sources). The following gives a summary of what these two words meant/who they referred to in the various contexts of their uses:
Quote:1. RSabha m. (fr. 2. %{RS} Un2. ii , 123) , a bull (as impregnating the flock ; cf. %{vRSabha} and %{ukSan}) RV. AV. VS. ChUp. BhP. &c. ; any male animal in general S3Br. ; the best or most excellent of any kind or race (cf. %{puruSarSabha} , &c.) MBh. R. &c. ; the second of the seven notes of the Hindu1 gamut (abbreviated into R2i) ; a kind of medicinal plant Sus3r. Bhpr. ; a particular antidote Sus3r. ii , 276 , 7 ; a particular Eka7ha (q.v.) Ka1tyS3r. ; the fifteenth Kalpa ; N. of several men ; of an ape ; of a Na1ga ; of a mountain ; of a Ti1rtha ; (%{As}) m. pl. the inhabitants of Kraun5ca-dvi1pa BhP. v , 20 , 22 ; N. of a people VarBr2S. ; (%{I}) f. a woman with masculine peculiarities (as with a beard &c.) L. ; a widow L. ; Carpopogon Pruriens Car. ; another plant L. ; [cf. Zd. {arSan} ; Gk. $.]
Quote:1 ariSTanemi (%{a4riSTa-}) mfn. the felly of whose wheel is unhurt (N. of Ta1rkshya) RV. , (%{is}) m. N. of a man (named together with Ta1rkshya) VS. xv , 18 , (said to be the author of the hymn RV. x , 178) RAnukr. ; N. of various princes MBh. VP. ; of a Gandharva BhP. ; of the twenty-second of the twenty four Jaina Tirtham2karas of the present Avasarpin2i.
This much becomes apparent even from the various meanings given in the entries:
- can see how in Vedic Skt, which is the original source of these words, both RiShabha and ariShTanemi have a basic meaning ("bull" etc, and "the felly of whose wheel is unhurt", respectively), can be used as descriptives, as well as [consequently] being epithets/proper names of several Vedic personages.
- can also note how in the, much later, Jain uses of these original Vedic Skt words, these become names for Jain characters. Characters distinct from the Vedic persons and epithets who since much earlier had possessed of/been referred to by these names and epithets.
Can work out from this that Jain references to Jain teerthankaras called Rishabh(a) and Neminath(a) "aka the Jain Arishtanemi" are simply speaking of entirely different entities to what the Vedic Hindus (and Hindu works like the MBh~Harivamsha) spoke of. Moreover, the very Vedic texts - the very ones which use the Vedic meanings of R^ishabha and [edited typo] ariShTanemi to refer to Vedic persons or as Vedic descriptives - do not know of the Jain Teerthankaras that would later be given these names. (Same as how Vinayaka and Heramba were originally Hindu epithets/proper names for Ganapati and which names were later incorporated by Buddhism as epithets for Buddhism - which is an example already covered in an earlier post somewhere in this thread.)
Further, the Vedic - i.e. original - meanings of the Vedic Skt words arhat, arhanta, arhasi, arhaNa and arha are apparently related, meaning: deserving/worthy, as well as worship and the like. (Being descriptives, they are therefore also famous personal names and epithets of the Hindu Gods: IIRC, arha is a name of Indra, arhanta is a name of Shiva.) And "deserving/worthy" and "worship" etc are the meanings in which this set of words - the ones prefixed above on arha* - is used in the Vedas.
However, Jainism tries to retrofit Vedic references to words like "arhan/t" (like Buddhism nowadays does with other Hindu texts) as being a reference to the later Jain/Buddhist meaning of Arha(n)t - capital A for distinction. I.e. they choose to read it as being a reference ShramaNas (capital Sh).
But that is beside the point, as the next few posts go through all the occurences of the words Rishabha, Arishtanemi and arha* in the Rig Veda Samhita (there aren't that many references) and so can make up one's own mind.
Death to traitors.