Who is the first Tirthankara of Jainism?

Rishabhanatha is regarded as the first Tirthankara of Jainism in the present cosmic cycle.

He is also known as Rishabhadeva, Rishabha, and Adinatha, names that emphasize his status as the first or primordial spiritual teacher. Jain tradition describes a Tirthankara as someone who attains perfect knowledge, conquers the cycle of rebirth, and establishes a path that others can follow toward liberation.

Rishabhanatha occupies an unusually broad role in Jain narratives. He is credited with organizing human society and teaching practical skills such as agriculture, crafts, and social administration. His son Bharata is remembered as a universal monarch, and Jain tradition connects his name with Bharatavarsha, a traditional name for India.

His emblem is the bull, and Jain accounts associate his birth with Ayodhya and his liberation with Mount Ashtapada, often identified in tradition with Mount Kailash. These details belong to sacred Jain cosmology rather than conventional historical chronology: Jain texts place his life unimaginably far in the past. He is sometimes confused with Mahavira, but Mahavira was the twenty-fourth and final Tirthankara of the present sequence.