Long before the rivers had names and the wheels had been invented, the world was lit by a long age of plenty called the Bhog-bhumi. Wish-fulfilling trees gave food, clothing and shelter; the people had no need to till the land or build a hearth. But the trees, like all worldly comforts, faded with time. In that age was born the prince Rishabh, son of King Nabhi and Queen Marudevi. From a young age he shone with two gifts — wisdom and compassion. When the people grew hungry and frightened, Rishabh did not retreat into a palace. He came down among them. He taught them to plough the earth, to weave cotton and silk, to write the first letters of a script, to count, to make pots and to extract fire by friction. He taught women the seventy-four arts of household and harvest. To his sons Bharat and Bahubali he gave kingdoms, and to all his children he gave the sense of a settled life. Yet the deepest gift Rishabh held back. After arranging the world so that people could live, he took the final step — he set out to discover how to be free of the world. He stood under a banyan tree, took the great vow of renunciation, and pulled out his own hair in five fistfuls. For one thousand years he walked the silent path of penance, fasting often, speaking rarely, taking food only when offered with the correct intention. At last, on the bright fourteenth of the month of Phalgun, all the dark veils of karma dropped away and he became a Kevali — fully enlightened. For the next thousand years Rishabh walked the land as Bhagwan Adinath, the first teacher of the path. Hundreds of thousands listened to him. He gave the world the four orders of the sangh — monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen — and the seven-fold path leading to liberation. When the time came, he sat on Mount Ashtapad in the Himalayas, withdrew into deep meditation, and attained moksha.