Removing The Sheen From Buddhism

[Husky]

Post 1/?



Successive posts concern the following excerpts from Wacky pages. The topic's important because various unfounded statements are now being parroted blindly on *Hindu* sites. They don't even bother to substantiate things for themselves first before trying to sell it off to their Hindu audience.



1. Wacky history of Rishabha page:

en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?&title=Rishabha&diff=556147431&oldid=522685544

Vedas mention 22 Jain Tirthankaras.

− Of Rishabha (1st Tirthankara Rishabha) is written:

− ::"''But Risabha went on, unperturbed byr anything till he became sin-free like a conch that takes no black dot, without obstruction ... which is the epithet of the First World-teacher, may become the destroyer of enemies''" (Rig Veda X.166)

Hindu sites continue to parrot the above as fact (google the above alleged RV statement and you may still see evidence of Hindu sites advertising it), even though the wacky page has instead been changed to the following conveniently vague-er statement (claims they don't feel the need to reference at all now):

There is mention of Rishabha in Hindu scriptures. He finds some references in Veda. However, its meaning is not clear and has different interpretations.

2. The following on the Neminatha wacky page is relevant to Hindus. It's apparently not enough that Hindu wacky pages (e.g. on Patanjali/Yoga sutras, on Upanishads, on Hindu cave temples, on Hindu persons for example) get vandalised by not just neo-Buddhists and get the glorious Bauddhification/Jainisation treatment, but Hindu religion (and even history) has to get dragged into pages on other Indic religions and mangled to provide the "proof of historicity" so sorely lacking in those other Indic religions themselves.



The 2nd case in point then:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neminatha

...

Neminatha, the 22nd Tirthankara of the Jains, was the son of Samudra Vijaya and grandson of Andhakavrishni. Jains and some Hindus consider Neminath to be the cousin of Krishna..[3][4](Krishna was son of Vasudev who was brother of Samudra Vijaya i.e. father of Neminath)

(The reference given is Jain sources like the late Jain rewrite of the original Hindu MBh and the multiple Jain rewrites of the original Hindu Harivamsha. Perhaps more about this later.)



According to both religions, Krishna negotiated his marriage with Rajamati, the daughter of Ugrasena, but Neminatha, empathizing with the animals which were to be slaughtered for the marriage feast, left the procession suddenly and renounced the world. Some writers of the Jain scriptures say that Tirthankara Neminatha was the master of Krishna.

(Reminiscent of how IIRC Bahai - a spin off of various monotheisms including islam - believe that the future Maitreya Buddha has already been and was their prophet or something. And IIRC islam lists the pre-islamic Hellenistic Alexander [the Great] as a prophet of islam. All being examples of one religion invoking an earlier one for validity/authority/popularity/for better establishing themselves/to obtain a longer pedigree.)



The Andhakavrishnis of Dwaraka in Kathiawar Region of present Gujrat state of India, as a republic is referred to in the Mahabharata, Arthashastra and Ashtadhyayi of Pāṇini.

The name of the Vrishni corporation is also found on a coin which on paleographical grounds dates to the 1st or 2nd century BCE. It seems that the republic was named after Andhakavrishni, the grandfather of Neminatha. If Andhakavrishni is a real person, there seems to be little doubt that his grandson Neminatha was real.



It is mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishads III, that the sage Ghora Angirasa imparted certain instructions of the spiritual sacrifice to Krishna, the son of Devaki. The liberal payment of this sacrifice was austerity, liberality, simplicity, non-violence and truthfulness. These teachings of Ghora Angirasa seem to be the tenets of Jainism. Hence, Ghora Angirasa seems to be a Jain sadhu. The word Ghora Angirasa seems to be an epithet given to him because of the extreme austerities he undertook. It may be possible to suggest that Neminatha was his early name and when he had obtained Nirvana after hard austerities, he might have been given the name of Ghora Angirasa[citation needed].

(Will get to these ridiculous Jain claims on ghorAngirasa and the Chandogyopanishad in some much later post. BTW, the above is *also* parroted by Hindu sites on the web. :Eek



In fact, the Jaina traditions about Neminatha or Arishtanemi as incorporated in the Harivamsha, Arittha Nemi Cariu and other works may be corroborated to some extent by the Brahaminical traditions. He is mentioned in some of the hymns of the Vedas but their meaning is doubtful.

In the Yajurveda, he seems to be clearly mentioned as one of the important Rishis[citation needed]]. He is described as one who is capable of crossing over the ocean of life and death, as the remover of violence, and one who is instrumental is sparing life from injury. The Yajurveda probably belongs to the 12th century BCE. This indicates that Neminatha was known at this time and flourished even before.

The Rig Veda mentions Aristanemi (Tirthankara Neminatha) as:

"So asmakam Aristanemi svaha Arhan vibharsi sayakani dhanvarhanistam yajatam visvarupam arhannidam dayase" (Astak 2, Varga 7, Rig Veda)

(The next posts are specifically about this.)



Neminatha was a cousin of Krishna.[5]

...

(und so weiter.)

There's more weird stuff going on in the above 2 wackypedia pages. But for now leaving it at that.



The stream of posts to follow is going to be about what the Hindu texts being referred to above - like the Rig Veda, Harivamsha, Chandogya Upanishad - have to say for themselves about these things.