Jaina Monuments and Places First Class Importance

Author(s): T N Ramchandran
Publisher: Veer Shasan Sangh Calcutta
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/011058/1

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jIvana-paryanta samAja-sevA ke mahAn anuSThAna meM salagna janma svargavAsa ambAlA chAvanI lAlA rAjakRSNa jaina dehalI 10-11-1600 1dariyAgaja, dehalI 4-2-73 Apake dvArA mUDavidristhita 'dhavala granthoM kA jIrNoddhAra havA, dehalI meM ahiMsA madira, dharmazAlA cikitsAlaya, vAcanAlaya Adi kA nirmANa, tIrthoM va jinavANI Adi kI rakSA ke aneka kArya hue| prastuta pustikA unakI smRti meM unake putra zrI premacandra jaina ne bhArata ke vizvavidyAlayoM ko bheTa svarUpa pradAna kii|

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JAINA MONUMENTS AND PLACES OF FIRST CLASS IMPORTANCE BY T. N. RAMACHANDRAN, M.A. (Presidential Address during the All-India Jaina Sasana Conference, 1944) [Held on the occasion of the 2500th Anniversary of the First Preaching of Lord Mahavira Swami] CALCUTTA.

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Published by Srr CIIIIOTLLAL JAIN, Hony. Secretary, TIRI SISANA SANGILI. 89. Lower Chitpun Road, Calcutta Printed by GOUR CHANDRA SEN, B.COM. THE SREE BHARATEE PRESS 170, Rames Dutta Street, Calcutta-6.

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CONTENTS JAINA MONUMENTS AND PLACES OF FIRST CLASS IMPORTANCE. Pages : C. 10 O 13 O C NORTH INDIA 1. RajagTha 2. Bihar - Barabar Hills 3. Mathura 1. Orissa 5. Khajuraho 6. Mount Abu 7. Taranga 8. Girnar 9. Satrunjaya 10. Ranpur 11. Parasvath 19. Pawapuri 13. Jainism in East Bengal. SOUTH INDIA History of Jainism in South India. 14. Trichinopoly. 15. TIRUPARUTTIKUNARAM : Religious history of Tiruparutlikunaram. PAINTING 16. SITTANNAVASAL. 17. Tirumalai. 18. Sravana Belgola. PAINTED MANUSCRIPT COVERS, TES a or 10 ct or c000 6 JAINA ICONOGRAPHY. 51

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(iv ) METAL IMAGES 59 59 59 69 64 1. Paharpur, Orissa. Gwalior 1. Nahar's collection. 5. South Indian Bronzes : (a) Bellary (Madras Museum) (b) North Kanara. HAMPI CONCLUSION PLATES I - XLI 64 66 69

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pada. * do do do do JAINA MONUMENTS By T. N. Ramachandran In cur search for Jaina vestiges we should naturally tur la the places where the Tirthankaras were born and allained nirvonu as they are just the places ol pilgrimage in and around which thic Jaina religious following hal constructed monuments and the like for a faithful posterity to admire and adore. Such are : Tiithaakaia. Place of birth Place of nirvana. 1. Adinatha Ayodhya Kailasa or Mt. Asta 2. Ajitanatha Sainmeta sikhara or Mt. Parsvanatha in West Bengal 3. Sambhavanatha Sravasti 4. Abhinandana Ayodhya 5. Sumatinathia 6. Padmaprabha Kausainbi 7. Suparsvanatha Varanasi 8. Chandraprabha Chandrapuri 9. Puspadanta Kakandi 10. Sitalanatha Bhadrapura 11. Sreyamsanatha Simhapuri 12. Vasupujya Champapuri Champapuri (Nortir ! Bengal). 13. Vimalanatha Kampilya Mt. Paravanatha or Sammeta Sikhara. 14. Anantanatha Ayodhya. 15. Dharmanatha Ratnapuri do 16. Santinatha Hastinapura 17. Kunthtinatha do 18. Aranatha do 19. Mallina tha Mithilapuri or Mathura. 20. Munisuvrata Rajagrha or Kusagranagara. 21. Naminatha Mithilapuri or Mathura. do 22. Neminatha Souripura or Dvaraka. Mt. Girnara. 23. Parsvanatha Kasi Mt. Parsvanatha 24. Mahavira Kundagrama or Kunda Pavapuri. pura. * Supposed to be Satrunjaya in Guzerat. do do do do do do do do

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JAINA MONUMINIS 1. RAJAGRHA Of actual structures anterior to the Mauya cpoch, the only examples, known to have survived until the present day, are the walls and reinains ol dwellings in the old city oi Rajagrha, all built of rough cyclopean masonry. This city was 14 pulcd in antiquity to have been forsaken during the reign of king Bimbisara, the contemporary of the Buddha, who removed the capital to New RajagTha, but as to how long the walls or houses had then been standing, tradition is silent. According to Jinaprabhasuri, the city which eventually came to be called Rajagyha was known from Lime to time by such earlier names as Kshitipratislitla, Chanakapun, Risablapura and Kusagrapura, the first three of which are not met with elsewhere, in Buddhist or Brahmanic al literature. This capital of Magadha might be viewed from a distance from the Gorathagiri (modern Barabar hills) in Bihar. According to the Jaina tradition recorded in Jinaprabhasuri's T'ividhati tha-kalpa, Rajagtha was not the first but the last name by which the capital of Magadha came to be known. Of the four carlier names, Kshitipratishtha, Chanakapura, Vrsbhapura, and Kusagrapura, one at least, namely, Kusagrapura, is met with in the Si-yu-ki of Hiuen Tsiang and the Manjusri-mulakalpa. The Jaina Vividha-tirtha-kalpa speaks of Rajagrha as the residence of kings and princes such as Jarasandha, Srenika, Kunika, Abhaya, Megha, Halla, Vihalla, and Nandisena. Jarasandha was no other than King Jarasandha of Epic fame, Srenika was king Seniya Bimbisara of Pali literature, Kunika was King Ajatasatru, son and successor of Bimbisara. Abhaya was Abhayarajakumara, and Megha, Halla, Vihalla, and Nandisena were like Kunika and Abhaya, sons of Bimbisara, presumably by different queens. According to the Jaina Nirayavaliya Sutta, Vihalla's mother was a daughter of Cetaka, the then king of Videha, while

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RAJAGRIA 3 according to Buddhist tradition, Ajatasattu was a son of Bimbi sata by a Vidchan queen (Ajalasaitu Vedehiputio) During the reign of Bimbisara and Ajatasatru the city cl Rajagrha was at the height of its prosperity. The Jaina texts (Jaina Sutras) describe Rajagaha as a city which was rich, happy and thriving. Jinaprabha-sun tells us that it contained 36,000 houses of merchants, hall of which belonged to the Buddhists, and the other half belonged to the Jainas shown forth in the middle as a row of magnificent buildings. Buddhaghosa, too, mentions Rajagaha as a city, the inner and outer areas of which contained cach nic crores of people. At the time of Hiuen Tsiang's visit in the 7th century A.D. 'the only inhabitants of the city were 1,000 Brahmin families' and many Digambaras lodged on the Pi-pu-lo mountain who practised austerities incessantly. The Jaina records and traditions, earlier as well as later, aie mainly responsible for the modern nomenclature of the hills around Rajgir. If one enters Rajgir from the north, the hill which lies to the right is Vaibharagin; that which lies to the left is Vipulagiri; the one which stands at right angles to the Vipula and runs southwards parallel to the Vaibhara is Ratnagiri; the one forming the eastern extension of the Ratnagiri is Chhathagiri and the hills that stands next to Chhathagiri in continuation of the latter is Sailagiri. The one opposite to the Chhathagiri is Udayagiri, that which lies to the south of Ratnagiri and the west of Udaya is Sonagiri. The Vaibharagiri extends southward and westward ultimately to form the western entrance of Rajgir with the Sonagiri. The Vipula-parvata runs for some length towards the south-east leading to the northern range of hills that extends up to the village called Giriyak or Giryek on the Bihar-SharifNawadah road. The Ratnagiri streches southward for some distance and then bends eastward, the eastern hills Chhathagiri and Sailagiri extending towards north-east forming the northern range of Rajgir hills. The Chhathagiri and the Sailagiri form the east

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JAINA MONUMENTS crn entrance of Rajgir with the Udayagiri which, continues eastward as the southern range of Rajgir hills. The Udayagiri in its turn forms the southern entrance of Rajgir with the Sonagiri The Sonagiri extends further west or southwest to forin the western entance of Rajgir with the Vaibhara hill which stands in front of it. The Rajgir hills forming two parallel rangos, northein and southern, run north-east over a distance of 9 miles and terminate at the village of Giriyak. In the inscriptions of the Jaina temples on Vaibharagiri the names of the hill is sometimes written as Vaibhara, and sometimes as Vyavahara'. It is apparently the same mountain as Varhara which is described in the Mahabharata as a vipula saila, or 'massive rock'. According to Jinaprabhasuri, the city of Rajagtha shone forth in the valley of Taibharagiri with Trikula, Khandika, and the rest as its bright peaks. The Jaina author speaks of some dark caves in this hill that could not be entered without much difficulty (tamaskanda-duvigahaguha). He refers to this sacred hill as the site where one might be easily inclined to build kundas of tepid and cold water (lapta-sitam bul-kundani). Close to this hill were the Sarasvati and other streams flowing with pleasant waters with properties to heal diseases, and they served as so many popular Tirthas (bathing places). 'The Saugrolas (Buddhists) built viharas on this hill, finding it to be a suitable site (pratidesa), and the Jainas installed images of the holy Arhats (Tirtharkaras) in the chailyas (shrines) built upon it. Thus Rajagtha and its neighbourhood have a considerable importance in the history of Jainisin. For it was in Nalanda, a suburb of Rajagrha, that Mahavira spent the second year of his asceticism. It was again in Rajagrha and Nalanda that he found his early supporters in such rich householders as Vijaya, Ananda, Sudarsana and Bahula. Gosala, the leader of the Ajiyikas, met him first in Rajagrha. The settlement of Kollaga (Konnaga), and the village

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RAJAGRHA of Balaka at soinc distance from Nalanda, were places that became scenes of his carly action. The Kalpa-Sutra informs us that in Rajagrha and Nalanda Mahavira spent as many as fourleen rainy seasons. Rajagtha was also known as the birth-place of Munisuvrata [ 20th Tirthankara ), one of the predecessors of Malavira. Eleven out of the twelve ganadharas or leading dis ciples of Mahavira attained nirvana in Rajagrla. The Pali Nikayas refer to Kalasila or Black Rock on a slopc or side of Isigili as the place where the Nirgranthas were seen practising the difficult penance of remaining in standing polo ture (ubbhatthika), rejecting seats (asana patikkhitta). This Kalasila was, perhaps, no other than what is called the site of Gunasila-chaitya in the Jaina Uvasaga-dasao. When Hiuen Tsiang visited Rajagrha in the 7th Century A.D. he saw many Digambars on the Pi-pulo (Vaibhara) mountain, who lodged There and practised austerities incessantly turning round with the sun, watching it for the whole day. The earliest known Jaina inscription is the one on the pedestal of the Jina-image recording the name of Mt. Vipula and king Sienika in a Bralimi alphabet which may take us back to the Kushana age. The Jainas built small temples on almost all the hills of Rajgir, installing images of the Tirthankaras in them and those still exist. Papapuri (or Pavapuri), the place of Mahavira's nirvana is located near Rajagrha, on the Bihar Sharia-Nawadah road. Prince Abhaya figures in the Pali Nikiyas as a strong laysupporter of the order of recluscs founded by Mahavira. According to Jaina tradition, among the sons of Srenika (Bimbisara), Abhaya, Halla, Vihalla, and Nandisena were lay adherents of the Jaina faith. It is quite natural that there existed some amount of rivalry between the Jainas and the Buddhists. The Pali Nikagas refer also to Pavarika's "Mango-grove" at Nalanda as the place where Mahavira figured as a very poput

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JAINA MONUMENIS lai and venerablc personality One Dighatapassi, a Jaina 1cciuse of the time, resided there. Upar, a rich householder of the locality, played the role of a savaka or lay worshipper of the great Tirthankara. Lepa was another rich householder of Nalanda to figure among the Jaina savakas. He had a "bath ing hall which was beautiful and contained many hundreds of pillars" While thus Rajagrha takes the foremost place in the history of Jainism, its value as an archaeological centre is outstanding. It is well known to you all that the Archaeological Survey of India have been excavating and preserving the monuments at Rajgir over since the Department was started The possibilities of New Rajgir (District Patna) as a suitable centre for a chaeological excavation are such that we must resolve now, on this grand occasion of Lord Mahavira's Sasana Celebration, to help the Archaeological Survey to acquire the site of New Rajgir for excavation. I am sure the Jainas whose thirst for culture is proverbial will rally round and help the Archaeological Survey to acquire, preserve, and excavate New Rajgir. 2. BIHAR : Barabar Hills. Chaste and severe like Asokan Pillars are the dwellings and chapels excavated in the hills of Bihar Like the chaityas or hernitages from which they were copied, these consist of a small oblong chamber in one instance with rounded ends) with or without a circular apartment at one extremity, but in only one example is the timber work of their prototypes reproduced in stone. The example referred to is the Lomas Rsi Cave, the ornamental facade of which is an accurate replica of a wooden

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BARABAR HILLS model. This particular cave, however, bears no inscriptions either of Asoka or of Dasaratha, and the fact that its interior was left in unfinished state suggests that it was the latest of the whole group. Probably, it was not excavated until after the close of Dasaratha's reign. The exacavated chaitya-halls in the Barabar hills, Bihar, were dedicated to the use, not of Buddhists, but of the Ajivikas. The Lomas Risi cave, is undated, and apparently unfinished, but certainly Maurya. The shrine chamber in it is oval, and the entiance facade is carved, in imitation of wooden forms, in the shape of an ogee arch above heavy sloping jambs, and the pedt ment is decorated with a frieze of well designed elephants. Atleast four other Maurya cave shrines or monasteries are found in the same district. All are excavated in the hardest rock, but are exquisitely finished and polished like glass inside. The forms are evidently those of contemporay sliuctural buildings in indigenous style. 3. MATHURA. The steady growth of plastic art derives additional light from the pre-Kushana sculptures of Mathura, which are the more instructive, because they all emanate from one and the same school. These sculptures divide themselves into three main classes, the carliest belonging approximately to the middle of the second century B.G.; the second to the following century: and the last associated with the rule of the local Satraps. Of these, the first two are closely al in in style to the reliefs of the Bharhut rail and Sanchi toranas respectively. The sculptures of the third class are more exceptional. Their style is that of the Early School in a late and decadent phase, when its arts was

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JAIN MONUMENIS becoming conventionalised and lifeless. Typical cxamples are a Jaina ayaga pata or votive tablet dedicated, as the inscription on it informs us, by a courtesan named Lonasobhika, and another which is decorated on both sides, from a small torana arch. In all works of the Mathura school ol this period the same tendency towards schematic treatment is apparent, but it appears to have affected the Jaina sculpture more than the Buddhist. The dramatic vigour and warmth of feeling which characterised the relief of the Sanchi gateways is now vanishing; the composition is becoming weak and inechanical, the postures formal and stilted. The cause of this sudden decadence is not difficult to discover. A little before the beginning of the Christian era Mathura had become the capital of a Satrapy, either subordinato to or closely connected with the Scytho-Parthian Kingdom ol Taxila, and as a result, there was an influx there of semiHellenistic art, LOO weak in its new environment to maintain its own individuality, yet strong enough to interrupt and enervate the older traditions of Hindusthan. It was no longer a case of Indian art being vitalised by the inspiration of the West, but of its being deadened by its embrace. As an illustration of the close relation that existed between Mathura and the North West, the votive tablet of Lonasobhika is particularly significant, the stupa depicted on it being identical in form with stupas of the Scytho-Parthian epach at Taxila, but unlike any monument of the class in Hindusthan. Another interesing votive tablet of the same class is one dedicated by a lady named Amohini in the reigh of the Great Satrap Sodasa (10-15 A.D.) which, to judge by the style of its carving, dates from about the beginning, of the Christian era. The School of Mathura is more nearly related to Bharhut than to Sanchi and is represented by some fragementary sculptureswhich must go back to the middle of the second century B. C. The main Jaina establishment at Mathura represented by the

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CAVES OF WESTERN AND EASTERN INDIA Kankali Tila site alieady existed in the second century B. C. Amongst the more interesting sculptures are the ayagapalas or votive tablets, such as those above referred to, but usually square; they bear inscriptions in Brahmi characters which can scarcely be later than the beginning of the Kushana period. Some bear in the centre the representation of a seated Jina with shaven head of the type of the larger cult image of l'arsvanatha from the same site, and of the early Buddhas. Other reliefs include representations of Harinegamesa, a minor divinity connected with the nativity of Mahavita. 2 6 Rock-cut caves of Western and Eastern India While structural edifices-stupas, chapels, and monasteries were being erected in Hindusthan, the Buddhists and Jainas of Western and Eastern India were engaged in fashioning more permanent monuments of the same class by hewing them from the living rock. The practice of hollowing out chambers had been common in Egypt from time immemorial, and by the sixth century B.C. had spread as far east as Persia, where the royal tombs of Darius and his successors of the Achaemenian dynasty up to the time of Codomannus (335-330 B.C.) were excavated in the cliffs of Naksh-i-Rustam and Persepolis. From Persia the idea found its way during the third century before the christian era into Hindusthan and resulted, as we have already seen, in the excavation of dwelling places and chapels for ascetics in the Barabar hills of Bihar. These artificial caves of the Maurya period were of very modest proportions, and were at first kept severely plain, or, like their Iranian proto-types, adorned only on the outer facade. As time went on, however, the Indian excavators became more ambitious and, rapidly expanding their ideas, proceeded to copy their structural chaitya halls and viharas on the same scale as the originals, and to imitate their details with an accuracy which speaks more for their industry and patience than for the originality of their genius. So literal, indeed, was the

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10 JAINA MONUMENTS translation of wooden architecture into the new and more durable material, that infinite toil was expended in perpetuating fornis which became quite meaningless and inappropriate when applied 10 stone, 4. ORISSA. Of the early caves along the East Coast the only ones that merit attention are the two neighbouring and intimately connected groups on the hills of Udayagiri and Khandagiri in Orissa dating from the first century B.C. Unlike the rock-hewn monuments of Western India, which were the handiwork of Buddhists, these Orissan caves were both excavated and for many years tinanted by adherents of the Jaina rcligion, who have left behind them unmistakable evidences of their faith both in the carly inscribed records and in the medieval cult stalues which are found in several of the caves. To this sectarian difference is due many distinctive features of the architecture, including, among others, the entire absence of chaitya halls, for which, apparently, there was no need in the ceremonial observances of the Jainas. A further stage in the development of this architecture is Teached in the Rani Gumpha of great importance to the Jainas, which is atonce the most spacious and elaborately decorated of all the Orissan caves. It consists of two storeys, each originally provided with a verandah - the lower 43 feet in length with three cells behind, the upper 20 feet longer with four cells behind; in addition to which there are chambers of irregular plan in the wings, to right and left of the verandahs. In both storeys the facades of the cells are enriched with pilasters and high ornatdfriezes illustrating episodes connected with the Jaina

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ORISSA 11 religion, of which unfortunately the interpretation has not yet been established. It is significant, too, that various points of resemblance are to be traced between the sculptures of the upper floor here and the Jaina reliefs of Mathura, where, as we have already scen the artistic traditions of the North-West were at this time obtaining a strong foothold. The uuth appears to be that the art of Orissa, unlike the ale of Central or Western India possessed little independent vitality, and flourished only so long as it was stimulated by other schools, but became retrograde the moment that inspiration was withdrawn. The Rani and Ganesa caves are both two-storeyed, with friezes interrupted by the cell doorways, in both the upper and lower galleries; the former the largest and the best decorated of all. 'I he scenes, which include the hunting of a winged deer, fightn'g scenes, the carrying off of a woman etc., though superficially fit in with the abduction of Sita, Maricha, the golden deer of the Ramayana, have not been identified correctly or satisfactorily, but may be presumed to be taken from Jaina legends and to have an edifying value equivalent to that of the Buddh ist Jatakas. Or was there a Jama version of Rama's story, like that the Buddhist have called Dasaratha Jataka? The style is original and vigorous. "Shield" and svastika symbols are found in the same cave. The Udayagiri caves have been carved out of the living rock like those of Western India. They were evidently intended for the residence of Jaina monks, and made probably in the first century B.C. During this century the great Jaina king Kharavela of Kalinga set up a long inscription recording his achievements, in the celebrated cave known as Hathigumpha in this very hill (called Kumari-parvata in the inscription), and there

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JAINA MONUMENTS is little doubt that at least some of the caves were excavated by him and his family. It is possible that the residence of Arhats (monks), which king Kharavela is represented in his inscription to have erected, refers to Rani Nur or Ranigumpha. This lies behind Hathigumphu and is the most spacious and elaborately decorated rockcut cave in the hill. It is a two-storeyed structure consisting of a number of cells and was originally provided with a verandah in both the storeys. To the right and left of the verandahs, in the two projected wings of the cave, there are also chambers of irregular shape. The friezes seem to represent some legends from Jaina mythology, but have never been satisfactorily explained. The Rani Nur sculpture may be said to be typical of the School represented by the Udayagiri caves. It shows a more advanced technique than Bharhut, while the balancing of the delails in the compositions, and the vigorous and animated treatment of the figures, which are specially noteworthy in the friezes of the upper storey of Rani Nur, are suggestive of a stage of development witnessed in the reliefs of the Sanchi Gateways. NORTH INDIA 5. KHAJURAHO : The groups of Hindu and Jaina temples at the old Chandela capital of Khajuralo in Bundelkhand are second in importance and magnificence only to the mediaeval 4.cmples at Orissa. All appear to have been erected between 950 and 1050 A.D. The Vaisnava Caturbhuja and the Jaina Adinatha temples are in exactly the same style, to be distinguished only by the details of their sculpture.

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NORTH INDIA . MT. ABU 13 6. MOUNT ABU: The Jaina temples at Mount Abu are deservedly famous. These take their name of Dilvala from the adjoining village, situated at a height of 4000 feet on an isolated hill in Southern Rajaputana; the group consists of four temples, of which the most impoilant are those of Vimala Sba and Tejahpala, respectively (c. 1032 and 1239). They are constructed entirely of white marble, quarried in thc plains below, and carried up the steep hill by infinite labour. These are domed shrines with pillai ed halls. As Couscns remarks "the amount of beautiful ornamental detail spread over these temples in the minutely cai ved decoration of celings, pillars, doorways, panels. and niches is simply marvellous; the crisp, tlin, translucent, shelllike treatment of the marble surpasses anything seen elsewhere, and some of the designs are veritable dreams of beauty. The work is so delicate that ordinary chiselling would have been disastrous. It is said that much of it was produced by scraping the marble away, and the masons were paid by the amount of marble dust so removed." The iwo great domical ceilings are the most remarkable features; all the fretted marble is deeply undercut, and in the centre there hangs a great carved pendant, Il must not be supposed that all this work is overwrought; this is rather one of those cases whiere exuberance is beauty. It will be understood, of course, that the figure sculpture is necessarily in the same key, each individual figure being but a note in the whole scheme, not a profound invention to be separately studied. The same applies even to the images of the Jainas in this period; each is severely simple. but all are alike in representing nothing more than the skilled realisation of a fixed formula. 7-9. TARANGA, GIRNAR AND SATRUNJAYA: There is another and even more picturesque Jaina tirtha or place of pilgrimage at Taranga, not far from Siddhapur, with a temple of

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14 JAINA MONUMENTS Ajitanatha, built by Kumarapala. The most remarkable of such Tirthas, however, are the great temple cities - cities not built for human habitation, but consisting of temples alone - piolu esquely situated on the hills of Girnar in Kathiawad and SatrunJaya 01 Palitana in Gujrat. At Gurnar the great temple of Neminatha is certainly oldier than 1278 A.D., when it was repaired, another, built by the brotheis Tejahpala and Vastupala, foundcrs of the second temple at Mt. Abu dates about 1230 AD. The lormer stands in a colonnaded court of some seventy cells, tho latter is a triple shrine arranged in Chalukyan fashion about a central hall. At Satrunjaya the total number of shrines, in even separate enclosures, exceeds five hundred Somc date back to the eleventh centmy, the majority range from 1500 A.D. to the present day. One of the largest is the temple of Adinatha in the Kharataravasi Tuk, built by a banker of Ahmadabad in 1618, this is a shiine of two storeys, with a well proportioned Sikhara, and with a verandah of which the pillars bear capitals richiy carved with figures of inusicians and dancers. A small shrine built by the Nagar Seth, or Head of the Guilds of Ahmadabad in 1840, is a pillared hall of unique design with external verandals; the floor is divided by twelve piers into nine smaller squares, those of the angles having domed roofs, those of the centre and sides being crowned by towers; the five principal icons represent sacred mountains, 10-11. RANPUR AND PARASNATH: Other picturesquely sittiated Jaina temple groups are found at Ranpur (especially the chaumukha temple, A.D. 1458) in Jodhpur State, and Parasnath in Bengal, 12. PAWAPURI : The Jainas built small temples in almost all the hills of Rajgir, installing the images of the Tirthankaras

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JAINISM IN EAST BENGAL in them in comparatively modern times, and these still exist. They have located Pawapuri, (or Pavapuri, as it is called) the place of Mahavina's demise, near Rajagrha on the Bihar SharifNawadah ioad. 13 JAINISM IN EAST BENGAL. Ol particulai interest to the Jainas of East India is the find inade last year at Mamavati, near Comilla, East Bengal of a stone image of Jaina Tirthanhara and pol-sherds from polley evidently of monastic use. Though the image could not be recovei ed as since it was found it had been secreted somewhere for salety, we have the testimony of Mr. R. M. Chakravarty, Superintendent of the Ramala Library, Comilla, who saw it when it was excavated, that it was a nude image representing a Tithankara No ollier Janna remains could be noticed in the locality We do not hear much of Jainism in East Bengal. The existence of a Jaina Vihaia in the 4th century A.D. at VataGohali in the present site of Paharpur, Rajshahi District, Hiuen Tsiang's reference in the 7th century A.D. to the influence the Norgranthas had in North, South and East Bengal, the subsequent disappearance from Bengal of the sect of Nurganthas during the pala and Sena period, the probable assimilation of the Nirgranthas towards the end of the Pala period in the Avadhutas and such other religious sects and the re-establishment in Northern Bengal during the Muhammadan period of the old religion in its new form, thanks to the services of Jaina iminigrants from Western India - are some of the features in the developement of Jainism in Bengal. Its sway in East Bengal in contrast to the spectacular hold that Buddhism had in Bengal was not much. As at Paharpur, so also at Mainainati, Jainism appears to have flourished side by side with Buddhism and Brahmanism.

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JUNI MONUMEN IS SOUTH INDIA The history of Jainisin in South India "is the history of a. partial attempt to Aryanise thic Dravidian races." This attempt may be sail to commence when Chandragupta Maurya accornpanied Bhadrbahu I to the south a few years before 297 BC. This was followed by other in issions to the south, such as that ol Kalakacharya, a preacher of the Svetambara sect who "found his way to the court of the king of Pentha in the Deccan," and who was probably an Andhra king or chief ruling from Paithan, and of Visakhachaiya, a Digambara preacher who "with a group of emigrants penetrated the Chola and Pandya countries." The spread of Jainism and the dissemination of Jaina idcals in the Tamil country received sufficient impetus on the advent of Kundakundacharya "evidently a Dravidian and the first in almost all the genealogies of the southern Jainas" and is attested to by literary works such as the Kural of Tiruvalluvar, Manimekhalai and Silappadikaram. The spread of Jainism in the Tamil country is in no sinall measure due to "the patronge it obtained at the courts of Kanchi aud Madura." At the time of the visits of Hiuen Tsiang to these cities, the former had a number of Deva ter ples of which "the majority belonged to the Digambaras" and the latter had in it living a number of Digambaras. Whatever may be the controversial views entertained by historians to-day on the question of the antiquity of Jainism" and existence of a Jaina period in the History of India" it is. accepted on all hands that from the beginning of the Christian era down to the epoch-making conversion of the Hoysala Visnuvardhana by the great Vaisnava" Acharya Ramanuja in the twelfth century, Tainism was the most powerful religion in the South,

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SOUTH INDIA Though we do not possess to-day the names of kings in South India who wcie Buddhists we have fortunately preserved ior is the names of some that adopted Jainism. Some of the Pallava kings of Kanchi, chiel ainong whom was Mahendravaiman I (600-30 A.D), a few Pansya, Western Chalukya, Ganga, Rashti akula, Kalachuya and Hoysala hings were staunch Jainas and it is said of somc of them that they persecuted other i eligionists. The carly faith of Kan-Pandya i Nedumaran, a great Pandya king who lived in the eighth century was Jainism, froin the "clutches" of which, it is said, he was saved by Tirujnana Samnbandha, another saivite saint. The Kadamba kings of Banavasi in Karnataka, though themselves Hindus, were "systematically eclectic and favoured Jainism as the religion of many of their subjects." They are, to mention a few, Kakusthavarman (430-450 A.D.), Mrgesavarman (475-490 A.D.). Ravivarman (497-537 A.D.), and Harivarman (537-547 A.D.). The western Chalukyas or the early Chalukyas as they are inore often called, were also patrons of Jainism. Jayasimha I, the first king of the dynasty appears to have patronised three Jaina Acharyas, Gunachandra, Vasuchandra and Vidiraja. Pulakesi I (550 A.D.) made endowments to a Jaina temple at Alakhtanagara and Kirtivarinan I (566-597 A.D.), his son, gave a grant to "the temple of Jinendra," while Pulakesi II, the latter's son (609-642 A.D.) patronised Ravikirti, the Jaina poet who composed the Aihole inscription in which he says : - "This stone temple of Jinendra .. was constructed by Ravikiti, who had acquired the greatest favour of that same Satyasraya (Pulakesi), whose commands were restrained by the three oceans." Niravadya-pandita or Udayadeva-pandita as he is also called, house pupil of Pujyapada, who belonged to the Deva-gana of the Milasangha, i.e., of Digambara Jainas, is spoken of as a spiritual adviser of Jayasimha II, and of Vinayaditya (680-697 A.D.). He

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JAINA MONUMENTS is said to have received at the hands of Vijayaditya (696-738 A.D.), the son ol Vinayaditya, a village for the maintenance of a Jaina i emple. Vikramaditya II (733-717 A.D.), the son of Vijayaditya, repaired a Jaina temple and gave a grant in connection with it 10 a Jaina ascetic Vijaya-pandila by name. But the 'golden age of Jainism" in Karnataka was under the Gangas, who, it is said, made Jainism their "state religion." It is saill of the great Jaina Acharya Simhanandi that he was not only instrumental in laying the foundation of the Ganga king<Page #27
SOUTH INDIA 19 Maha-purana in 897 A.D)., in the reign of Amogha-varsha's successor, Ktshna II (880-911-19 A.D.). Among Jaina works thal were written at the Rashtrakuta capital, mostly under the patronage L Amoghavarsha I, mention may be made, besides Harivainsa, Adi-puruna and Uttara-purana ol Akalanka-Charilu, Jayadhavalatika a work on Digambara philosoply by Virasenacharya, a mathematical work called Surusamgraha or Ganitasurusarigrala by Viracharya, and a treatise on moral subjects entitled Prasnoltara-ratnama? ka, the authorship of which is attributed! to Amoghavarsha himself. In short it is said of Amoghavarsha I that he was the greatest patron of Digambara Jainism and that he adopted Jaina faith. In the reign of Krshna II his subjects and tributary chiefs either built cr made grants to Jaina temples already built, doubtless under his patronage, and the Jaina purana(Mahapurana) was consecrated in Saka 820 by Lokasena, the pupil of Gunabhadra. The Chalukyas of Kalyani who succeeded the Rashtrakutas in 974 A.D. aster the last Rashtrakuta was defeated by Taila II (973-997 A.D.) were not so favourable to Jainism "and at times persecuted them": Saiva opposition was getting stronger and the kings themselves were slowly coming under the stvay of Saivisin. Thus, for instance, Jayasimha II (1018-1042 A.D.), the successor of Vikramad'lya V (1009-1018 A.D.) and grandson of Taila II, is said to have perseculel the Jainas after being himself converted from Jainism to faivism at the instance of his wife Suggaladevi. The story of such persecution is narrated in the Basava Purana and in the Chenna Basava Puruna. But his successor Ahavamalla Somesvara I (1042-68 A.D.) appears to have been a good patron of Jainism as evidenced by an inscription at Sravana Belgola which states that "the Jaina teacher Svami won the title of Sabda-Chaturmukha at the hands of King Ahavamalla." It has been more often supposed that the Chola kings persecuted the Jainas. This does not appear to be generally true as will

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20 JAINA MONUMENTS be seen from a study of the Chola inscriptions in the Jaina temples at Tiruparuttikunrain. Tribhuvanamalla Bijjala (1156-67A.D.), the founder of the Kalachurya dynasty, wlio was himself a Jaina to start with and had in his grants the figure of Tithankara engraved, came under the cvil influence of his minister Basava, the founder of the Lingayat sect, who prevailed on siis master to persecute and ever cxterminate the Jainas. When Basava found that Bijjala did not fully agree with him in his campaign of hatred nor approved of the nethods that he had adopted to persecute the Jainas he had the king murdered stealthily. This was followed by a period of terror and bloodshed that spread as far as the kingdom of the Cholas and the Hoysalas," The Hoysalas, whose kingdom included modern Mysore, were staunch Jainas. Vinayaditya II (1047-1100 A.D.), the first historical person of this dynasty owed his rise to power to a Jaina ascetic named Santideva. Santaladevi, the wife of Vishnuvardhana alias Bitti (un-1141 A.D.), was a lay disciple of a Jaina teacher, Prabhachandra, while Vishnuvardhana's minister Gangaraja and Hulla, a minister of Narasimha I (1143-73 A.D.) are specifically citecl as "two out of three very special promoters of the Jaina saith". Thus there seems to be no doubt that the early Hoysalas were Jainas and that the later Hoysalas from Bitti onwards were converted to Vaishnavisin mainly because of Ramanuja's personality. Bitti, who was perhaps the greatest ruler of the dynasty, was "a fervent inilitant Jaina down to the time when he was converted to Va-shnavism by Ramanuja." an event which came to happen by a iniracic as Vaishnava literature has it. Much reliance cannot be placed on tlie traditional account that the new convert persecuted the Jainas, being directed to do so by Ramanuja, for we learn that his wife Santaladevi remained a Jaina and continued to make grants to the Jainas with the king's consent, and that Gangaraja, his minister, whose services for Jainism are

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SOUTH INDIA 21 well known, continued to enjoy the king's favour. Moreover he himself is said to have endowed and repaired Jaina temples and to have afforded protection to Jaina images and priests. It is claimed for Vishnuvardhana-the name adopted by him after his conversion-that his reign was one of great toleration that continued even during the reigns of his successors. His successors, though themselves Vaishnavites, are said to have built Jaina temples (bastis) and to have protected Jaina Acharyas. Such are for instance Narasimha I (1143-73 A.D.), Vira Ballala II (11731220 A.D.) and Narasimha III (1254-91 A.D.) The Vijayanagara kings were always noted for their highly tolerant attitude towards religions and were therefore patrons of Jainism too. Bukka I (1357-1377-8 A.D.), is spoken of for the Jaina-Vaishnava compact that he was able to effect during his reign. This by itself speaks for the patronage that Jainism received at the hands of the early kings of Vijayanagara. Bimadevi, the queen of Deva Raya I, is said to have been a disciple of a Jaina teacher Abhinava-Charukirti-Panditacharya and to have installed an image of Santinatha at Sravana Belgola. We shall have occasion to speak of the faith of Irugappa, the general of Bukka II (1385-1406 A.D.) and of the toleration of the greatest of the Vijayanagara kings, Krshnadeva Raya (1510-1529 A.D.) when describing the temples at Tiruparuttikunram [Jina Kanchi]. Almost all the rulers down to Rama Raya made grants to Jaina temples and were tolerant enough. Such has also been the attitude of the feudatory and minor rulers under the Vijayanagara kings and of the ruling house of Mysore towards Jainism, an attitude which luckily continued down to the present day. It is said that some of the minor powers like the rulers of Gersoppa and the Bhairavas of Karkala "professed the Jaina faith and left monuments of importance in the history of Jaina art."

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JAINA MONUMENTS It will thus be clear that whatever dynasty was master of the land, Jainism was likely to recente support from it. There secins, however, to be no cvidence of such continuous support to Bud(Ihim. The fall of thc Kalachutya dynasty in the Dckklan was perhaps a death blow to South Indian Jainism. But we find that it continued to flourish even after that in the Tuluva (Guntry. It lias been rightly contended that for well nigh a millennium and half. Jainism was quite alive and active" and that "even now, unlike Buddhism, it has a considerable number of followers in the South, no less than in the North." 14 : TRICHINOPOLY ANCIENT NAME OF TRICHINOPOLY: At Tuichino poly which was visited during the year, scine interesting discoveries were made. Ils ancient name as found in the lymns of Jnanasamnbardha in the Devaram is Chirapalli and the same occurs also in the long verse inscription of about the uth century A.D. engraved in the Pallava cave on the hill. This name was in Vogue for several centuries in inscriptions as well as in literature, until the time of thc Vijayanagara rulers, in a few of whose records, however, the form 'Tiruchchinapalli' was sometimes used, and this has given rise to the modern Anglicised name 'Trichinopoly'. The word palli appears to have, in this case, special reference to its association with thc Jaina religion, ancient vestiges of which have now been discovered here. CAVERN WITH BEDS AND EPIGRAPHS AT TRICHINOPOLY: Behind the huge boulder which contains the shrine of god Uchchi-Pillaiyara on the top of the fort-rock at this

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TRICHINOPOLY place, an overhanging rock forms a recessed cavern which contains carly Jaina vestiges. On the platform under this rock there are planned out several stone beds provided, in some cases, with pillows shaped out of the stone. The beds which are about 4' long and wide may be considered to be rather cramped for comfortable sleeping. A few of the stone pillows show traces of obliterated writing of about the 5th centily A.D., recording possibly the names of the occupants of the beds who were probably Jaina ascetics who had repaired to the caves for the performance of austerities. One of these bears, the name 'Chira, the bearer of which was perhaps a monk of repute and possibly the settlement was called Tiruchirappalli after him. On the way leading to this cavern, on the northern slope of the hill, is engraved in Biahmi characters of the 2nd century B.C., one line of writing which may be read as 'Kapagaghari', meaning probably "a cavern or cave going in like a well." In three or four places on the ledge of the rock leading to the cavern is deeply cut a label which reads "KAMTTUHU' (evidently meant for Kamctuh) in characters of about the 7th century A.D. In three cases, a different label in early script is also engraved faintly below this word, giving the names 'Amitanam (ta)', 'Gatadosa' and 'Kaiyvilakku'. In two places are found the words TAMCHAHARA(KA) and 'Senatandan'. The script in which the label Kamtuhu' is engraved resembles that of a few labels on one of the pillars in the Pallava rock-cut Siva temple just below this cavern. The form of the label, which may be interpreted as a Sanskritised Telugu word meaning 'enemy', also suggests that like many other similar titles of Mahendravarman, this may also have been his biruda. Saiva tradition as embodied in the Periyapuranam avers that a Pallava king named Gunabliara who was originally a Jaina was converted to Saivisim by the efforts of Saint Appar, and that thereupon this ardent royal convert built many Siva temples throughout his do

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2.1 JAINA MONUMENTS minions for the propagation of his new faith. This king has been identified with the Pallava Mahendravarman I who bore the title 'Gunabhara'. The word 'Kamttuhu' is engraved al four different places along the precipitous approach. After his conversion lo Saivisin the king may have excavated the rock-cut teniple of Siva called Lalitankura-Pallavesvara-grham, wherein in a Sanskrit verse engraved on the beam of the Verandah, he has emphatically expressed his adherence to the Saiva creed and describes all other religious faiths, as vipaksha-vrtti.* The word 'Tanchahara(ka) can be interpreted as a title of Mahendraverman and to mean "he who captured Tancha (Tanjore). From the Velurpalaiyam plates, we know that Sinhavishnu, the father of Mahendravarinan, claimed to have conquered the Cholas, and in support of this fact, it may be pointed out that Kanjanur in the Tanjore district bore the surname Sirnhavishnuchaturvedirnangalam in Clola times, testifying to its connection with the king of this name. As Pallava influence began to be felt in the Chola territory only from this period, it is possible that Mahendravarman who may have participated in this southern expedition in the company of his father had adopted this title. On the stone platform of the same cavern is found the expression 'Svasti Sri Rajendra' of the fuller name RajendraCholadeva in Grantha characters atrtibutable to the 11th century A.D, while close to it is another coniplete inscription in characters of the same period consisting of a Sanskrit verse, containing an announcement by a certain Vadipralaya-Bhairava of his arrival at this place after having vanquished disputants and after having visited Karnata-mandala. It is not clear if he was a Jaina ascetic, but T. N. Ramachandran. "The royal artist Mahendrajvarman 1," 56. The king was no convert to any faith but perhaps a convert to Art, Muses, etc.

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IIRUP.IRUTTIKUNRAM OR JINA-KANCHI it may be mentioned, however, that the title 'a Bhairava of disputants' was borne by Taina monks also. * 15. TIRUPARUTTIKUNRAM OR JINA-KANCHI. The Digambara Jainas of the Tamil country speak of four seats of learning (Vidyasthanas or Chatus-simhasanas), those being Kollapura, Jina-Kanchipura, Penukonda and Delhi, The Mysore Jainas have a different list. Burgess suggested that JinaKanchipura was perhaps the present Chittanur in South Arcot District. Bur the local tradition associating the name of JinaKanchipura with the village of Tiruparuttikunram, the high repute of Kanchi as a scat of learning (Ghatika-Sthana) from very early times, and the reference in many other Jaina texts and traditions to Kanchipura as one of the Vidyasthanas, warrant the identification of the present village of Tiruparuttikunram with Jina-Kanchi. The mutts at Delhi and Penukonda are not traceable now. The monuments of Conjeevaram (Kanchi) bear testimony to the fact that the city was a stronghold of people of varicus religions from very early times. Buddhism, Jainism, Saivism and Vaishnavism, each in its turn, had powerful hold over the cry and have left umistakable niarks of their influence. According to Hiuen Tsiang, who visited Conjeevaran in about 640 A.D., "Kanchi is as old as Buddha, Buddha converted its people, Dharinapala Bodhisattva was born there, and Asoka bu'lt several stupas in its neighbourhoo!". He further states that the "Jainas were very numerous in his day," and thal "Buddhism and Brahmanism were about on a par". *A, R. S. I, E. 1998. p. 78.

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26 JAINA MONUMENTS In the early stages Jaina influence existed side by side with thal of Buddhism. The Sthalapurana of nearly every temple in (onjeevaram conhms the belief of the people that "Conjee varam was for ages a Buddhist and alterwards a Jaina town." This takes us to the very interesting qucstion of the religious history of Tiruparullikunram which is as interesting as its sccular one, and is cqually rich for the reason that a place like Jina-Kano hipuram, Oure of the l'idyasthanas sacred to the Jainas cannot be othcrwise. A study of the local traditions, and of the inscriptions in the temple and on the samudhi peclestals reveals a regular heirarchy of sages who figure in some of these inscriptions as master (guru) and disciple sisya). Their main work appears to have been propagation of the Digainabra Jaina religion. With erudile scholarship some of these sages combined rars lacl and accommodation to other faiths like Hinduism, which stood them in good stead, for they not only secured for their religion the patronage of the king of the land, but also protected them from Hindu fury. By slow degrees these sages began to acquire, apart from the religious hold that they already had, much political influence in the country. Jaina contribution to the literature of South India is rich,. most of its contributors being religious enthusiasts. From Manimekalai and Silappadikaram, two Tamil epics of the Sangam age, yve Icarn that the Jainas were roughly divided into two sections the munis or ascetics such as those at Jina-Kanchi, and the Srarakas i.e., laymen. "The most scholarly among these enthusiasts grouped themselves into various sanghas or monastic orders or communities for an effective propagation of the faith. Each sangha was divided into many ganas and each gana into many gachchhas. There are four sanghas which characterise the Digambara church, viz... (1) Nandi (2) Sena, (3) Deva, and (4) Simha sanghas. From inscriptions we learn that a sangha called the Dramila sangha, probably the one that established itsell at Madura,

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TIRUPARU ITIKUNRAM OR JINA-KANCHI 27 was the most important of all these sanghas, and that one of its ganas, the Nandigana was famous in the history of South Indian Jainism. It is not strange that we find at Tiruparuttikunram a regular heirarchy of gurus and sisyas lor we learn from the Sravana Belgola inscriptions, (Nos. 47. 54, 105, 108 and 145), that the system of this heirarchy commenced from the time of Chandragupta Maurya (300 B.C.). It need hardly be said here that Sravana Belgola where the colossal statue of Bahubali, the son of the first Tirthankara stands, was likely to abound in information concerning the succession of apostles and other gurus and teachers. According to the Sravana Belgola inscriptions the first guru or Yatindra was Kundakunda Acharya, then came Umasvami, the compiler of the Tattvartha sutra, Gridhrapinchchha and his disciple Balakapinchchha. After him came the famous. Samantabhadra whose name has gone down in the history of Digambara Jainism in gold letters. According to tradition his date is 138 A.D. All writers on South Indian Jainism and Sanskrit literature are agreed in acclaiming with one voice that Samantabhadra's. appearance in South India marks an epoch not only in the annals of Digambara Jainism but also in the history of Sanskrit literature. After Samantabhadra came several munis or ascetics who continued the work of propaganda and organised the Jaina community into convenient classes and enriched the literature of the land. Chief among them were Simhanandi, who, according to tradition founded the state of Gangavadi, Pujyapada, the author of Jinendra Vyakarana, and Akalanka more closely connected with Kanchi than the others, for it is said of him that in about 788 A.D. he confuted in discussion the Buddhists at the Court of King Sahasatunga Himasitala at Kanchi, and besides converting the king to Jainism secured with his aid the expulsion of the Buddhists from Kanchi and from South India to Ceylon.

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28 JAINA MONUMENTS To the people at Tiruparuttikunram the tradition iegarding Akalanka alonc is fresh in their minds while the earlier minis and the later ascetics are alinost forgotten. It is easy to understand this for the tradition regarcling Akalanka is kept alive at a neighbouring Jaina village called Tiruppanamur, about twelve miles from Kaichi, where a big stone mortar in the local temple is explained by the temple pricsts as the one employed by Akalanka to pound the vanquished aliens, and a sculpture on the compound wall of the temple in front ol the said mortar showing a Jaina ascetic in the attitude of preaching, as illustrating the propaganda work of the sage who told the people around that Jainism was superior to all other religions, that much virtue would accrue as a result of being a Jaina and that if any one should insist on continuing to be an alien in spite of his preachings the mortar would grind him in no tine. Nothing but their names is known of the sages subsequent to Akalanka who flourished in or about Tiruparuttikunram, till we come to 1199 A.D. The temple inscriptions and those at Arunagiri-meslu fortunately throw light on some more sages. Thus for instance inscriptions Nos. 3 and 22* speak of a guru called Chandrakirti who flourished at Tiruparuttikunram and whose remains have been interred at Arunagiri-indu and a samadhi erected over them there. In the former inscription dlated 1199 A.D. the gift of twenty velis of land in the village of Ambi to the temple is received from Kulottunga III, to wliom the recipients made clear that the temple at Tiruparuttikunram deserved his patronage because there lived in it their gurut, Chandrakirti. The king not only gave twently velis of land to the temple but also gave Chandrakirti the title "the acharya of Kottaiyur" in taken of his appreciation of the latter's tom Patronar i # T. N. Ramachandran, "Tiruparuttikunram Pp. 50: 61: and its temples".

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TIRUPARUTTIKUNRAM OR JINA-KANCHI 29 Icarning and work. In inscription No. 22 which is found at Arunagiri-medu, the same Chandrakirli is referred to as the spiriiual gurn of another sage who llourished at Tiruparuttikunram, the latter being known as Anantavirya Vamana.* In the present state of our kncwiedge of the Jaina heirarchy we are not able to identify the Chandrakirti referred to, and the local Jainas are unable to help on this point ; other lists found at sravana Belgola are not helpful. There is, of course, a Chandrakirti in the list of Jaina acharyas available from the Andhra-Karnata-cesu, and he is placed there between two other acharyas, Kanakakirti Deva, who figures in one of the misidhi inscriptions from Danaviilapadu now exhibited in the Madras Museum, and Bhattaraka Jinachandra. It will be too much to see any connection between our Chandrakirti (1199A.D.) and the one mentioned above, as the latter should be placed in the tenth century, the date of the nisidhi spcaking of Chandrakirti's predecessor Kanakakirti Deva being assigned on sure grounds to 910-917 A.D. Thus our Chandrakirti is a different person who lived and died at Tiruparuttikunram itself. Inscriptions No. 18 and No.22* relate to Anantavirya Vamana, another sage who was a disciple of Chandrakirti. The former is found on a balipitha to the north-east of the kora tree inside the temple, and the latter on a samadhi slab at Arunagirimedu. While the former merely says that the balipitha belongs to Anantavirya thereby meaning that worship was intended for him in the manner known to the temple archakas, viz, placing ablutions (bali) on the pedestal (the belief being that the spirit of the sage will feed on it), the latter dearly records that the slab was erected in memory of the said sage who had the unique honour of counting Chadrakirti as his spiritual guru, Nothing more is known about this sage from the temple records or from -- * T. N. Ramachandran, Ibid, p. 60-61.

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JAINA MONUMENTS local tradition. One of the cells in the Munivasa of the temple is assigned to him, another being assigned to his guru, Chandrakirti. 30 We are entirely in the dark about the identity of Anantavirya Vamana. But we know that he comes after Chandrakirti who figures in Kulottunga III's inscription dated 1199 A.D., and consequently should be placed a few years later than Chandrakirti, say, the middle of the thirteenth century. A study of the list of Jaina acharyas, as available from the Andhra-Karnatadesa, reveals an Anantavirya Deva who is placed between Bhavanandi and Amarakirti Acharya. Though this Ananravirya Deva might possibly be our Anantavirya Vamana, for the c is nothing in their dates to disprove the identity, the absence of any mention in the Andhra-Karnata list of his association with Tiruparuttikunram precludes the possibility of such an identi fication. * The next sage in the temple of whom we have clear information both from the temple records and from Jaina literature is Mallisena Vamana. Inscriptions Ncs. 9, 15 and 24* speak of him. In No. 9 he is referred to as Mallisena Vamanasuri, the preceptor of Puspasena-munipungava-Vamana. In No. 2.4 which represents the samadhi of Puspasena, he is again called the preceptor of Puspasena and is referred to by the naine Mallisena. In No. 15 which is a verse exclusively in praise of him, he is called Mallisena, his spiritual name being Vamana. Here it should be remembered that great teachers and writers on works of religion, philosophy, etc., are termed Vamanas, the term l'amana going with scholarship. And Mallisena, the local tradition proves, was more known by the term Vamana than even by his name Mallisena. He was a man of letters, held in high repute in his times, and was the author of several works T. N. Ramachandran, Ibid, pp. 58-59. 62. as

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TIRUPARUTTIKUNRAM OR JINA-KANCHI 32 written in Sanskrit, Prakril and Tamil. From one of his works in Tamil, entitled "Merumandara Puranam," hrom which I frcquently drew for iny understanding of some of the paintings in the temple, we learn that he knew Sanskrit and Prakrit too among languages, and Jaina and other systems in thought. The fact that he commences the Meruniandara Purana as "Tamilal onzil sollaluryen," i.e., "I narrate here one in Tamil" (verse No. 2) shows that the preceding works of his should have been written in a language other than Tamil, say Sanskrit. His Sanskrit learning won for him the title of "Ubhaya-bhasa-kavichakravarti" or the poet-monarch of two languages.." Some of his works known are commentaries to Sanskrit works on philosophy such as Panchastikaya, Pravachanasara, Samayasara, and Syadvadamanjari, Merimandara Purana and Samayadivakara, Thich is a commentary to a Tainill work called Nilakesitiraf! 1. TVhile his disciple Puspasena, about whom we shall presently speak, appears to have acquired political importance, being associated with Irugappa the general of Bukka II (1385-1406 A.D.), he seems to have acquired importance in the literary field. The high regard that Puspasena had for him is manifest in all Puspasena's inscriptions here. In No. 9 he calls himself Mallisena's clevoted pupil and' in No, 24 he calls himself rather poetically, "The bee that hovers over the lotus-feet of sri Mallisena."* Tradition associates him with the construction of the whole temple. Though this cannot be correct it still illustrates the extreme regard and importance that the Jainas of the place liad for this sage. Besides assigning him a cell in the Munivasa, the people have built a balipitha for him. This they have placed in the niche on the north wall of the Chola verandah under the inscription containing a verse in praise of him in order to connect the said inscription with the sage himself. Worship * Ibid, p. 67;

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JAINA MONUMENTS is offered to this balipitha even lo-day as also to a similar one placed on a brick pedestal below it which is intended for Puspasona, his disciple. One of the pedestals in the samadhz at Arunugirz-medu, which is curiously enough not inscribed, is, I was told, intended for him. As regards the date of this sage there is a silent but sure indication. Irugappa, whose inscriptions are dat 1387-88 A.D., speaks of his devotion to Puspasena, whose disciple he styles himself to be, but is silent about his attitude tow warrls Mallisena. the guru of his guru. His silence can mean only one thing, and that is, that at the time of the advent of Irugappa to the temple Mallisena was dead. Thus he comes after Anantavirya Vamana and before the advent of Irugappa, and may therefore be assigned to the earlier half of the fourteenth century. Now we come to the illustrious Puspasena who appcars to have wielded considerable political influence in his time. The Vijayanagara kings patronised him as a result of the hold that he had aver Irugappa, the general and minister of Bukka II and the sage was not slow in taking advantage of royal patronage. He prevailed on his royal disciple Irugappa to do the constructions in the temple and elsewhere (Vijayanagara city) referred to in inscriptions Nos, and 9.* In the latter inscription the sage himself is cited as the author of the super-structure of the gopura. Inscriptions Nas. 7, 9, 23 and 24 relate to Puspasena. Ncs. 23 and 24 are found on the samadhi altar, the former giving his name and the latter invoking his blessings for the salvation of the suffering humanity. It is strange that two pedestals containing inscriptions of Puspasena should be found in the samadhi altar, while there is no pedestal there of Chandrakirti, the first sage in our list. If we remember that there are two other bali Ibid, pp. 57-8.

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TIRUPARUTTIKUNRAM OR JINA-KANCHI 33 pithas or pedestals within the temple itself, both uninscribed, one in front of the kora tree and the other below the balipitha intended for Mallisena, and that they are siinilar to the ones in the samadhi, it is obvious that some of these uninscribed and similar pedestals should have been changed or misplaced at some time or other. Much prominence is attached to Puspasena in the local tradition probably because of his political influence. A cell is assigned to him in the Munivasa and worship is done to him much in the same way as is done to Mallisena. As regards his accomplishments, both spiritual and literary, inscriptions 9 and 24 are helpful. In the former he is called Vamana, "a bull among sages" (munipungava) and is given the title "paravadimalla' which means "a successful opponent of his enemies in discussion", In the latter his devotion to Mallisena is stressed and his blessings are invoked for the benefit of the suffering surging humanity, The fact that the samadhi pedestal of Puspasena is bigger than the others and that it is placed in the centre of the others and contains a bigger inscription bears testimony to the greater importance of the sage, in whose memory the pedestal arose. This pedestal appears to be the last in the collection of pedestals in the samadhi, and this fact gives room to the surmise that probably subsequent to Puspasena there were not similar sages in the place or, if there were any, did not acquire importance in the manner that their predecessors like Mallisena and Puspasena acquired. Otherwise their samadhis should also be expected. The Munivasa in the temple which contains five cells has still one cell to be accounted for, the other four cells being intended for the spirits of Chandrakirti, Anantavirya Vamana, Mallisena Vamana and Puspasena Vamana. "The name of the fifth is not preserved for us to-day either in the temple inscriptions or in the local traditions. He may most probably be one who had preceded Chandrakirti, whose name has not come down to us.

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84 JAINA MONUMENTS PAINTING: Very few early remains of Jaina painting ci importance have survived. The remains of frescoes in the Jogimare cave in Ramgarh hills in Orissa may be of Jaina origin. There are traces of paintings in one of the Jaina caves near Bhuvaneshwar in Orissa. The Sittannavasal frescoes to be discussed later are Jaina and are related to the Ajanta and Bagli frescoes in technique but they have no relationship to the miniature paintings of Jaina manuscripts. There is no apparent foreign element in Jaina sculpture. Their achievements in architecture and sculpture in a later period excite wonder by their beauty, technical perfection and magnificent ornamentation. That such a race of artists should produce great works in painting was to be expected. According to the custom prevailing among the Jainas "to carve ceilings with the principal incidents in the life of the Jina, to whom the main shrine or a corridor cell is dedicated," the ceiling of the mukha-mandapa and the sangita-mandapa in the Trailokyanatha or Vardhamana temple at Tiruparuttikunram bears a series of coloured paintings which, as has already been remarked, illustrate the life stories of three out of the twenty-four Jaina Tirthankaras. Though art-critics have much to say against this practice of "colour-washing" from the point of art, as convention plays a great part in such paintings, it has nevertheless to be welcomed as it gives an easy means of reading the life-stories of the gods of the Jaina pantheon without being forced to listen to narratives from the people who may know them or to look into the Jaina puranas, the majority of which are unfortunately still in manuscript form. This practice of colour washing and painting, which Mrs. Stevenson calls "the modern craze", has evidently taken the place of the craze for stone carvings which was customary from the early centuries, beginning perhaps with the Pallava king

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SITTANNAVASAL 35 Mahendravarman I, and points to a decadence in sculpturing and architecture. Viewed froin the point of usefulness, these paintings should certainly be welcomed and this practice has spread to Hindu temples also. Even a non-Jaina is so impressed with the various incidents illustrated in these that he seldom forgets them or fails to identify them again. They form as it were visualized books of Jaina Mythology and iconography presenting their details in an easy and interesting manner. The idea underlying this practice, as explained to me by one of the painters at Trichinopoly who was then working in the Malybhutesvara temple, is economy. This work is cheaper than that of stone carving, which is much more laborious. And the paintings, I was given to understand, were to be renewed if the colours faded. Failure to renew them has resulted in the fading and disappearance of many at Tiruparuttikunram which has encouraged us to place them on record before they gel completely lost.* 16. SITTANNAVASAL Examples of South Indian Jaina painting are many, dating from early times such as the 7th century A.D. down to modern times. The most important as well as the most interesting from the artistic stand point are the fresco-paintings on the ceiling of the Jaina cave temple at Sittannavasal, dating from the 7th century A.D. and assigned to the Pallava king Mahendravarman I The rock-cut temple here is identical with that at Mamandur. As it has not been figured yet in works of Pallava architecture I attempt to give here a description of its architecture which is Tiruparuttikunram and its Temples by T. N. Ramachandran Published by the Madras Museum. 1934; plates VI-XXX.

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36 JAINI MONUMENTS luckily simple and elegant. There are the usual four pillars supporting the roof of the cave, two standing in the middle and the other two, those at the ends, being embedded on the side of the cave, so that a portion of each alone projects. The central pillars are square in section with the usual octagonal belt in the centre and support capitals which present horizontal flutings. The capitals support the architrave, a long flat beam, which in lurn supports a projccting cornice. On either side of the cave is a niche in which is sealed the figure of a Jaina Tirthankara carved in high reliet, of almost lite size. The back wall is divided into symmetrical compartments by ornamental pilasters, in the centre of which a plain entrance into the inner cell is located. A pair of steps flanked by surul-alis leads to the entrance of sufficicnt relief which opens into a cell, cubical in plan, with plain walls, and showing signs of having been once covered with paintings. On the side opposite to the entrance and facing the latter can be seen three seated figures in a row. These three, together with the two outsile on the side-niches, are seated in the "samparyanka' pose with the legs crossed and the palms placed on the lap, one over the other - a pose specially prescribed for the Jaina Tirthunkarus. It was Dr. Jouveau Dubreuil that started characterising this cave temple as Jaina. Though several other writers did not agree with him the fact remains that Mahendravarman built that cave temple for his Jaina subjects. The identification receives support from the following facts. The Jainas require often such caves for the performance of severe austerities such as the sallekhani. The place of the dvarapalas in this cave is taken by two Tirtharkaras, both cross-legged and in the yogic pose. One of them has a curve over his head which may be taken to be the chhatra or more probably the disc of the moon (chandra-, kala) (Plate 4). If the latter is possible, then the image may be taken to represent Chandraprabha, the 8th Tirthankara. The identity of the other Tirthankara on the other side of the entrance

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PAINTING 37 is very clear. The cross-legged figure in the yogu pose has the serpent with five hoods over its head, a feature which marks Parsvanatha out casily (Plate 5). Though Suparsvanatha, the 7th Tirthankara, ought also to have this distinguishing maik, the absence of the svastika in this case, which as we know is an additional mark required for Suparsvanatha, proves beyond any doubt that Parsvanatha was alone intended. The three other Tirthankaras inside the cell remain for the present unidentified, in the absence of the lanchhanas appropriate to them. But, as they are all in the samparyanka attitude, with no trace of any kind of drapery or ornament or the yajnopavita on them, a feature shared by the two others outside, we have no hesitation in calling them all Tirthankaras and the cave itself a Jaina cave. The carving of these sculptures is marvellous for its precision and excellence of anatomy. The figures are natural and carry themselves with a grace though in a erect posture like a flame that flickereth not in windless space.' The curface of the rock inside has been given a finish to suit it for the subsequent fresco-process. "The figures carved are not finished as such, for that was left to the painter's plaster and brush". The cave was intended, even when it was actually carved, to be painted over inside, The paintings must have originally covered the whole of the interior as there are traces of colour today on the ceiling, the pillars and their capitals. Its Painting From a verse, "Saiveyam mama citrakarmaracana bhittim vina vartale" found in the well-known Sanskrit drama "Mudra Raksasa" by Visakhadatta of the 6th Century A.D. we get to know that "Bhitti-citra" ie., wall or fresco-painting

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JAINA MONUMENTS was very popular as otherwise it could not have been drawn for literary metaphors. Citra-lepya-krts or fresco-painters are relerred lo by poet Rajasekhara of goo A.D. as being assigned seats by the side of poets of Apabhramsa language in the court-halls of kings. It would thus appear that they were assigned a high position in society which is an index of the popularity of the art of painting Bhitti-citra was in fact such a noble hobby of even ruling monarchs that a few manuscripts, our of a horde of several of them that have luckily escaped destruction we get to appreciate their proficiency in painting. "To those earlier standard works on the subject such as Narada's "Sarasvati and Brahma", and the "Citrasutra" chapters of the "Visnudharmottara" we have to add the later royal contributions such as the Western Calukya king Somesvara's immortal "Abhilasitartha-cintamani" dating front the 12th century and the still later or to speak correctly modern "Sivatativa-ratnakara" compiled from earlier works on the subject by the Keladi chief Basavaraja (1709 A.D.). The 6th kallola, and taranga, of the last mentioned work introduces us to "bhitti-citra" in the palace-hall where the king has very ably analysed the subject as follows :VV. 2-74- 1. How to prepare vajrale pa, pens and brushes for painting 2. Selection of colours to suit different themes. 3. Description of natural (original) and artificial (mixed) colours. 4. Artificial colour-its ingredients. 5. Anatomy of pictures-measurements of the avayavas and parts of pictures. vv. 75-81- 1. Classification of pictures. 2. Places best suited for painting different kinds thereof.. VV, 89-361. Measurements of pictures in general and of their avayavas in particular:

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L'AINTING 3) The whole subject is dealt with in 160 verses in a chapter which the author characterises as "Varnasamyojana,, Citralekhana, firatima-laksana-nirupanam". Having had a peep into those early citra-salas or picture galleries, thanks to the innumerable litcrary references attesting 10 their existence, it is our pleasant task now to examine the fresco paintings at Sittannarasal with a view to find out how best the cave answered the description of a Citru-sala or picture-gallery. Being the most perishable of the fine arts the painting in this cave has suffered a good deal owing to age and age-long neglect and indifference darkening of the interior of the cave by smoke from the fire of way-side wandering pilgrims who appear to have cooked their food in, the peeling off of the plaster here and there owing of course to neglect and the almost horrible vandalism to which it has been subjected at the hands of cattle-boys, the natives of the soil and the over-zealous cerisus recorder. This vandalism has been described by Mr. M. S. S. Sarma, who has made 'beautiful copies of the remaining frescoes (some of which are figured by Mehta in his "Studies in Indian Painting') as follows: "....nuch of what remains intact has been also darkened by smoke from fires lit in the cave by resting bairagis. Balls of dung have been freely hurled at the ceiling; evidently the village urchins must have used the picture on the ceiling as a good target for their balls of dung and clay, which can now be seen sticking here and there! Any attempt to remove them brings away the plaster too, so that they are better left there to tell there tale. ... With regard to the very facet of the pillar wherein is located the dancing figure...., the delicate brush lines of the master-artist have bcen marred ruthlessly by the crude brush, probably of the census enumerator whose only paint is black tar, with the result that you find there, in hideous prominence, the figure 165 with something more added on to it." Surely the entire cave must have been

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40 JAINA MONUMENTS covered with pamtings, for traces of paint are seen everywhere inside the dark cave "as you become more and more familiar with the contents of the cave". Even as in Mamandur and at Mahabalipuram the sculptures in the cave reveal traces of plaster and coloui. "The cedit of discovering these paintings ought strictly 10 go to the late lamented Gopinatha Rao, who communicated his discovery lo his scholar friend, Dr. Jouveau Dubreuil who foithwith drew the attention of the world by means of a leaflet and an article in the Indian Antiquary (Vol. LII, pp. 45-47) with a tracing of the outline of a well--preserved dancing figure. With his remarkable precision in judgment and the instinct of a born archaeologist he was able to determine that "..... The process of Pallava painting is similar to that of the Ajanta paintings. 2. The painting of the Pallavas was, perhaps, even more beautiful than their sculpture. 3. The Sittannavasal cave is a Jain temple". After closely examining the Sittannavasal paintings and sculptures we have only to conclude that the Professor is remarkably correct in his estination. The sculptures which represent Tirtharkaras have been already examined. The paintings alone remain. Before taking to a study of these it is interesting to note that the name of the place, Sittannavasal is so un-Tamilian that to explain its derivation we have to look to its Sanskrit or Prakrit form. In Sanskrit it will be "Siddhanam vasan" i.e., the abode of the Siddhas or ascetics and in Praksit "Siddhanna-vasa". As we know that the Jainas and the Buddhists had a special leaning towards Prakrit culturally we shall take the Praksit form as the nucleus of the modern Tamil name of the place, Sittannavasal. The term "siddha" is of special value to us for our study for we know that the "siddhas" occupy a pre-eminent place in Jaina iconography and worship. Among the pancha-namaskaras that every follower of the Taina faith should make the second namaskar is reserved for the "Siddhas". And in Jaina cosmology the

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PAINTING 41 highest place or heaven (to use a common and popular term) is spoken ol as the siddhaloka, the occupants OL which are the siddhus or the liberated souls whom cven the 7 17 thun kuras worship prior to initiation (diksa). The Jaina ascetics of the place naturally required solitary places like the cave under discussion for the perforinance of their austerities and dhyana. The rocky nature of the country afforded tliem ample (avc-esorts, one of which was the one under discussion which was embellished with sculptures and paintings by a royal pation of rare artistic taste, who was probably drawn to the place either because of the sanctity of the place or because ol his fervour for the Jaina ieli. gion. Of those paintings of the place that are intact careful copies have bcen made by Mr. M. S. S. Sarma of Madras, some of which have been figured by Mehta in his book on "Studies in Indian Painting". I have seen his copies in colour and was struck by their fidelity to the originals. They have been drawn to correct scale and have been properly toned. The colours used are not many; those used are red, yellow, blue, green, black and white. While only one variety in each of black, green, blue and white pigments is found, red and yellow have two varieties each. Red has "red ochre" and "vermillion" and yellow "yellow ochre" and "bright golden". The colour scheme is harmonious and siniple, the colours being well soaked into the surface and given a final polish with probably small prepared pebbles. It is natural, without any claborate attempt at light and shadle. The backgrounds are mostly red or green. The paintings are essentially linear. The linear draughtsmanship reveals a knowledge of anatomy and pcrspective far advanced. # They "began and ended with outlines, and the boldness and firmness displayed in them are really marvellous", "every form being brought out firmly by its decided outline". It has been supposed that the first out

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JAINA MONUMENTS The chief decorative motif in the whole cave is the lotus with its stalk, leaf and flower. As Dr. Dubreuil has remarked in his "Pallava Painting", "The decoration of the capitals of the two pillars of the facade is well preserved and consists of painted lotuses whose blooming stems intertwine with elegance", the pillars being adorned with the figures of dancing girls. The ceiling of the inner cell reveals a gcoinetrical design, complicated, most of which has been unfortunately obliterated. Of those fragments that are luckily intact and have been copied by Mr. Sarma, that on the ceiling of the verandah is the most interesting. It is located in the centre of the ceiling and is flanked by two simple decorative panels with designs looking like carpets spread. A lotus tank in blossom with fishes, geese and other birds, animals such as busfaloes and bulls and elephants and three men, wading through, gathering lotus flowers, is the subject treated (Plate. 6). While the water of the tank alone is treated in a conventional manner the rest is done in a most natural, elegant and simple manner. The fishes and the geese play about in the lank here and there and recall a pleasant paradise. Lotus leaves are made to stand as the background of every lotus flower in bloom. Of the three men, whose pose, colouring and the "sweetness of their countenance are indeed charming" two stand close to each other while the line here must have been done with red ochare as at Ajanta. an inference which is but natural as, in the case of such paintings, time, exposurc, weather and natural decay would tend to obliterate everything else save the red outlines. But according to Mr. M. S. S. Sarma the execution here was different. "The cuncuma (Kunkuma) stem which Indian ladies use even to-day in thcir toilet is the thing that was used for the preliminary outline. The alkaline nature of the fresh ground converted the yellow of the stem into a rich red colour which was then fixed by outlines of different appropriate colours, thus parcelling out the ground for subsequent coats of colour. The outlines then were emphasised with suitable tints here and there.. When the surface moisture is gone, but when the ground is still damp, light shading by hatching and stippling is indulged in, and afterwards, before the ground completely dries up, the whole is given a polish with small prepared pebbles".

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PAINTING 43 third stands alone at the right hand end of the Iresco. The skin of two is dark-red in colour while that of the third is bright yellow or golden (Plates 1, 2 and 3). While both Mehta and Sarma do not agree with Dr. Dubreuil who identifies the scene depicted as "probably from the religious history of the Jainas, we are of opinion that the French archaeologist is seldom wrong in his surmises and if he errs at all he crrs rather on the right side than on the wrong one. The scene depicted is one of the most attractive heavens that find a place in the "Samavasarana or heavenly pavilion created by Saudhar mendra for the Jina to sit and discourse, the moment that he becomes a "kevali". Seated in the Gandhakuti within the "Laksmivara-mandapa," which in turn is in the centre of the whole samavasarana structure, the Tirthankara or the Jina holds the divine discourse attended by all pomp. A divyadhvani emantes from Him which is interpreted by the Ganadharas, the occupants of the first kosta which is one of the 12 kostas surrounding the seat of the Jina containing gods and goddesses, human beings, birds and beasts that had come to witness the grand scene of the Lord's discourse. The structure including the Laksmivara-mandapa, wherein the 12 kostas or compartments are located, and the Gandhakuti with the Lord in it is surrounded by seven bhumis or regions, each region being encircled by a rampart called vedika or sala. Those that are bhavyas, i.e., those good people who will have the good fortune to attend the Lord's discourse in the samavasarana structure have to pass through these regions before they repair to their respective kostas in the Laksmivara-mandapa. The second bhumi or region is called the "Khatika-bhumi" or the region of the tank. According to the "Sripurana" (a manuscript in Tamil-Grantha in the Madras Oriental Mss. Library), a work on Digambara Jaina iconography, this region is described as a delightful tank with fishes, birds, animals and men frolicking in it or playing in

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JAINA MONUMENTS it. The bhavyas are said to get down into the lank, wash their feet and please themselves as best as thcy can. And ou painting shows this tank-region with those men pleasing themselves by gathering lotus flowers, while animals such as elephants and bulls and birds and fishes are frolicking about and pleasing thcmselves too as best as they can (Plate 6). The other paintings in a tolerable state of preservation are two dancing figures on the cubical pillars that catch our eye as we enter the cave (Plate 2-b). They have been figured by Mehta in his book in plates 3 and 4. The one on the right side is not so well preserved as the one on the left, a sketch of which was published by Dr. Dubreuil in the Indian Antiquary. Vol. LII, p.46. From a sketch of the figure left out by Dr. Dubreuil but figured by Mehta in plate 4 of his book we can see that the left hand of the danseuse is stretched out gracefully in the danda-hasta posc. The left hand of the other figure (figured by Dr. Dubreuil) is thrown in the gaja-hasta pose. Both are treated with singular grace, their supple movements being rendered with ease, charm and sureness that could result only from the closest observation and aesthetic insight. Mr. Mehta was so much attracted by these danseuses that he bursts out as follows :- 'It was left to the artists of Southern India to crystallize into immortal form, the rhythm of dance and the energy of dynamic movement, as seen respectively in the glorious figures of swaying Apsaras, "loaded with jewelled ornaments, broad-hipped, narrow-waisted, powerful and graceful as panthers", and in the noble conception of Siva as Nataraja-the Divine Dancer". On the inner side of the right-hand pillar as we face the cave can be seen a beautiful head wity traces of a figure in front and of a woman's head behind. It has been figured in plate I of Mehta's book. I examined the copy of Mr. Sarma which shows many more details than Mr. Mehta's. It is that of a splendid figure with an ornamental coronet or head-dress and with patra

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TIRUMALAI kundalas in both the cars. While we agree with Mr. Mehta's clescription of the figure as "an impressive study.... showing the strength of delineation and directness of treatment which belonged to the palmy days of. Ajanta and Bagh" we are unable to accept his identification of the figure as Ardhanarisvara or Mahadeva. The figure is surely that of a king accompanied by his wise whoin he probably leads into the shrine. Such is the purpose in relegating this painting on the inner side of the pillar as if the persons are heading towards the interior of the shrine. The patra-kundalas and the ordinary coronet (not jalamukutu as Mehta described it to be show that Siva was not intended. And Siva has no place in a Jaina shrine. We are unable to see in the figure any divinity of expression that should go as a monopoly to Siva alone. Such dignity, if any, can go to the king of the land also, who in this case may be the royal attist Mahendravarman I. That thc figure behind him is that of his wife and that he is in the act of going with her to the shrine can be easily inferred if we bear in mind that the Varaha cave at Mahabalipuram contains a portrait of Mahendravarman heading towards the shrine, accompanied by two of his queens, the nearer of whom he appcars to be leading by her right hand, while his halfra'sed right hand points towards the shrine. He was probably similarly engaged here, though only the head of the king remains with the outline of what looks like a feminine face, which we have assumed to be that of his queen. Prof. A Chakravarti suggests that as the Samavasarana forms the central theme of the paintings, the king may be taken to be Indra leading his wife Sachi lo the Samarasarana. 14. TIRUMALAI-Next in time and importance come paintings at Tirumalai, North Arcot District ascribed on the evidence of inscription to the itth Century A.D. (EI. vol. IX. P. 229:

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JAINA MONUMENIS Smith, History of Fine Arts in India & Ceylon p. 344). This place is clebrated for the worship of Mallinatha and Nemisvara (plate 7). Excellent carvings of Kushmandini, Dharmadevi, Parsvanatha and Mahavira and inscriptions of Rashtrakuta king Krshna III (Regnal year 19) and of kings of the First Vijayanagara dynasty are noticeable here. What is of particular interest to the artist is the existence of paintings on walls and the ceilings of the temple here, which date from the 11th Century A.D. The scenes depicted are the samavasarana of Neminatha, particularly the Lakshmivaramandapa with its twelve kostas, geometrical patterns, inter-twining creepers, lotuses, rows of geese, lotus ponds and kirtimukhas. A huge full-blown lotus (Visva-padma) easily attracts one's attention as one enters. Scenes from the life of Agnila and Varadatta are also depicted. While the rock carvings (Pls. 8 and 9) recall the best sculpture of the early Chola period, the paintings which are contemporaneous (11th Century A.D.) are largely conventional such as Jaina painting developed into later on and this contrast with the Ajanta designs is worth noting (Smith, Ibid, p. 344). 16 18. SRAVANA BELGOLA :-Among later examples of which there are many, almost every Jaina temple of importance in the South having paintings on its walls and ceilings, mention may be made of those in the Jaina matha at Sravana Belgola illustrating scenes from the lives of certain Tirthankaras and of Jaina kings.* JAINA PAINTED MANUSCRIPT COVERS The painted covers of Jaina manuscripts are documents of the highest importance for the study of Jaina art and they ought *Ep. Car II, pl. XLVIII: Narasimhachar, Inscriptions of Sravana Belgola.

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JAINA PAINTINGS not to be totally left out of consideration. The specimens of book furniture afford examples of excellent craftsmanship. The embroidery of the book covers is vigourously designed and admirably and patiently exccuted. TAINA MINIATURE PAINTING COMPARED WITH BUDDHIST Their Jainas) pictorial art appears to be weak and inept yet no long intervening period separates the later monuments of Jaina architecture and sculpture from the age of manuscripts. The miniature art is inferior in (eeling and power of expression --it lacks the humanness of the sculpture. Like the Jaina sculptor, the Jaina painter, too, played his role in the dcvclopment of Jainism for Jaina painting, unlike Mughal painting, was the expression of a faith. Its mission was primarily to illustrate the lives of the grcat Jaina teachers and heroes by means of colour and line. THE PROVENANCE OF TAINA PAINTING. The provenance of the Jaina illustrated manuscripts is Guzerat and Rajputana. THE MINIATURES OF THE MANUSCRIPTS. The most important Jaina manuscripts with illustrations are manuscripts of the Kalpasutra and Kalakacarya Katha, the latter being often found with the former. The earliest known illustrated manuscript is on palm-leaf and is dated 1237 A.D. Not

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JAINA MONUMENTS the least iemai kable feature of this manuscript is that here we have examples of the earliest portraiture in Indian art, apart from representations of divine or semi-divine beings. These are portrails of Hema Chandra, a Jaina apostle, and King Kumarapala. Beller known are the illustrated inanuscripts on paper of the fifteenth century. THREE PERIODS OF DEVELOPMENT OF JAINA PAINTING. A close examination of available matcals cnables us lo distinguish three styles of Jaina painting : 1. the earliest style - the style of the period from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century, which may be called the archaic period of Jaina art. the style of the period of contact with Mughal art extenuing roughly from the cnd of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century: the style of the late seventeenth century, when Jaina art comes under the influence of Rajput art, and of the eighteenth century, when it completely merges into contemporary decadent Rajput art. The head-type varies in each of the three periods of Jaina art. First, we have the archaic profiles of the early art, then the clearcut chiselled features of the Mughal period and finally the fine oval countenances of the women and the whiskered faces of the men of the period of Rajput ascendancy.

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JAINA PAINTINGS 49 THE ARCHAIC STYLE. How hieratic forms repeat themselves in Jaina art-history is illustrated not only in the miniatures of the fifteenth century but also, and in a inore remarkable degree, in the images of the Tirthankaras. "The excessive deference to ritual prescription.. is carried to such an extremity by the Jainas that images differing in age by a thousand years are almost indistinguishable in style. Thc uniformity which runs through the centuries extends all over India..". The archaic types of the early manuscripts persist in the Jaina brass and rock crystal images long after the filteenth century. ITS DECORATIVE VALUE AND TECHNIQUE. Early Jaina art is a serious and formal art. It is an art dislinguished by much clever craftsmanship but nevertheless it has an intrinsic charmi of its own apart from mere technical excellence. The drawing, though usually rather rigid and inelastic, is at times distinguished by grace and power of expression and the pure blues and whites in the shining gold and red are a delight. Technically the early Jaina miniatures are of the highest interest. They do not reproduce the technique of the Buddhist miniatures. Jaina art is to be credited with the use, if not invention, of a remarkable technique without precedent in Indian painting. The process of working of the painter appears to have been as follows :- In the space left on the leaf for the miniature liquid gold paint, or it may even be gold leaf, was first laid on so much of the space as would be occupied by the subject of the picture. The background was now formed by laying on a deep scarlet and the pigment was laid on the gold in such

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50 JAINA MONUMENTS a manner as to leave a design in gold of the picture. The perfect control over the liquid gold which the Jaina artists exercised sexcites admiration. ITS DEFECTS : The obvious aim of the Jaina artist was psychological and particularly spiritual expression. The attempt to express graphically the life-histories of saints was no doubt an arduous task. Jaina art is essentially decorative. It does concern itself with pattern. Design is its first objective and colour is hardly less important. It is his decorative instinct which impels the Jaina artist to fill up his picture space with ornamentation. "The drawing has in fact the perfect equilibrium of a mathematical equation, or a page of a composer's score". The ornamental stylisation was necessary for the miniatures were intended as decorations to the manuscript. The miniatures were undoubtedly intended to embellish the manuscripts and admirably fulfill their function. THEIR VARIETIES AND TECHNIQUE: The book covers of the Jaina manuscripts are of two kinds known as Pathari and Putha. The Patharis were the covers within which the manuscript was kept while the Putha was the holder within which the book was placed while being read. THE ORIGIN OF JAINA PAINTING : It is difficult irr the present state of our knowledge to trace the precise origin of the Jaina school of paintnig. It no doubt belonged to the 'school of the ancient west" mentioned by Jaranath. faina art as we find it in the early religious books right up to the fifteenth century and even later was a specialised and splendid form of

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JAINA ICONOGRAPHY 51 popular art expression of the people. It was a distinctive forin into wluch that. ait expression had been moulded by hieratic tradition. Hence the conservatism of Jaina art - the conventionalized forms of the men and women and the sameness in the composition-fcatuies which repeat themselves in every manuscript so that the illustrations of one manuscript are closely identical with those of another to an extent which is without parallel. The popular art expression when thus diverted to the exclusive use of illustrating episodes in the lives of the Jaina saints is what we have come to know as Jaina art. It was a formal and frigid art in which convention had become supreme and had excluded freedom of design and cramped the unfettered movement of the artist's imagination and of his brush. It was as much an artistic formula as Byzantine art and it would not be correct to say as has becn said recently that the Jainas had no art of their own. While Jaina art was not an art of independent growth it was a very real and special form of the art of the times which on account of its distinctiveness is entitled to be known as Jaina art. On the other hand what has been loosely called "Jaina secular art" is not distinctively Jaina art at all and there is no reason for calling it secular in opposition to the religious art of Jainism. This so-called Jaina secular art or secular art of Guzerat by whatever name it might be miscalled, is in reality as we have said before the art expression of the common people, the genuine popular art of the country. Examples of it are the Vasanta vilas roll and the Lor and Chanda illustrations. JAINA ICONOGRAPHY Jainism is accused of being atheistic which is however not true. The numerous gods Tirthankaras, Yakshas, Yakshinis

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JAUNI MONUMENTS Indras, etc.)) that fill the Jaina Pantheon speak for the Jaina belief in godhood. But their gods ant not creators of thc universe, for creation implies volition or desire to create which can be spoken of only if there is anything which hitherto is not but must come into existence. The world is infinite and was never created at any particular moment. It is subject to integration and dissolution. Its constituent elements or magnitudes (astikayas) including the soul are cternal and indestructible ; but they change their forms and conditions. These changes take place in the two eras avasarpini and utsarpini. The desire to create would imply imperfection which will have to be attributed to God if he is to be the creator of the universe. Also the theory of creation, if accepted, will give rise to theories of a more complicated nature such as causation, which must eventually point to imperfection. The creator will be only a man, needy and therefore imperfect as any other. Jainism attempts to raise man to godhood and to inspire him to reach it as nearly as possible by "steady faith, right perception, perfect knowledge, and, above all a spotless life." Thus it will be seen that Jainism believes in godhood and Jaina iconography speaks of innumerable gods. Here it should be noted that in Jainism a sharp line of distinction is drawn between gods and devas ; the former are called Siddhas and the latter are described as mundane souls. All souls can aspire to godhood. To avoid confusion we explain Siddhas as emancipated perfect souls, and devas as celestial beings in the mundane existence. Jaina iconography as it is available to us to-day is so mixed up with Hindu iconography that a correct description of the various gods and goddesses occupying the Jaina pantheon is necessary to prevent them from being confused with their present equivalents in the Hindu pantheon, Though Brahmanical divinities have been included they have been accorded only inferior positions-a feature that luckily marks them out clearly. The

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JAINA ICONOGRAPHY 53 whole system of the Jaina gods and goddesses appears to-day as an claborately constructed system, probably synchronizing mits origin with the period in Hindu iconography which witnessed a similar construction of a system ol gods in accordance with certain dogmas that were made to standardize the various icons, till then loosely and freely fashioned. More than this we cannot say as materials are lacking for a chronological study of the Jaina system of divinities. Much reliance cannot be placed on the Jaina tradition that the system of Jaina divinities was evolved iminediately after Mahavira, for if this were adinitted it would carry the gods and goddesses back to very early centuries before the birth of Christ. Even very orthodox Jainas who accept the above tradition, will hesitate to assign the various Brahmanical divinilies that have crept into their iconography to such a remole past, for they have undcubiedly been taken into the system as C. R. Jain says "to placate the Brahmanical hatred and win them over to protect the Jainas against bitter persecutions at the hands of their co-religionists (Hindus)." And so far as South India is concerned the need for protection appears to have arisen only about the seventh century A.D. The utmost that can be expected in the carly centuries of the Christian era is that there was then a pantheon of gods, not so bewilderingly big as is found now, but probably consisting of only a select few. The membership may even have been so circumscribed that only the 24 Tirtharkaras and some members of their families like Bahubali or Gommatesvara (Sravana Belgola) and Bharata, etc., were aclmitted. But as years rolled on a regular Jaina hierarchy of munis or sages and Acharyas or apostles came to be evoled. Very soon these came to be deified by their followers. Close on the heels of this visible apostle-worship came religious persecution. Both combined to elaborate for the modern Jaina the present iconography that he boldly and with legitimate pride presents to his erst while Hindu persecutor.

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54 JAINA MONUMENTS As in Hindu iconography, so also in Jaina, the gods and goddesses are classified into orders, and convenient groups; they are mostly mortal and are mostly distinguished by lanchchhanas or cognizances. The most prominent among these gods as well as the most ancient are the 24 Tirthankaras or the perfected teachers who belong to the present age, (Avasar pini). Luckily we have ample materials concerning these Tirthankaras, and if to-day we have not a sufficiently satisfactory compendium of Jaina iconography it is not because materials are lacking. TABLE OF CLASSIFICATION OF SOULS. SOULS ! Perfect (Sidha) Mundane (entangled in uiatter) Samanya sidalia Tirthankala siddha Human Sub-hunan Hellish Celestial. Ascetic tie Ascetic Nou-ascetic Ailiats Acharyas Upadliyayas Sadhus Great Oidiuary 12 Chakra- Vartinis 9 Pati-Nara yanas 14 Maulis 21 Kamadevas 9 Nuradas 9 Narayanas 9 Baladevas 24 Parents of Tirthaukaas 11 Rudras Bhavanavasi-devas and their Indras Jyotish ka devas and their Indras, Vyantara-devas Vaimnika-devas and their and their Indias. Indras. Other devas and devis. Siddhas, arhats, acharyas, upadhyayas and sadhus are called pancha-parameshthins or the five supreme ones, to whom the Jainas pray and bow many times every day with the following invocation mantra): -

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JAINA ICONOGRAPHY 55 Namo arahantanam, namo sildhanam, namo uyariyanam, mamo uvajzhayanam, namo loye sabba-sahunam. "Salutation to the ai hats, to the siddhas, to the ucharyas, to the upadhyayas and to all the sadhus of the world". With the above invocation repeated millions of times every day the Jainas bow with hands folded in anjali (worship) in the four cardinal directions, east, south, west and north. The main import of such a prayer is three-fold : (1) Worship is given to all human souls worthy of it, in whatever clime they may be, (2) worship is impersonal. It is the aggregate of the qualities that is worshipped rather than any individual, (3) The arhat, "the living embodiment of the highest goal of Jainism", is mentioned first and then the siddha who is disembodied and consequently cannot be appealed to or approached by humanity. As the siddha is without body the Jainas feel that they can never pray to the siddha alone and preeminently. A siddha has, infinite attributes of which 8 are generally mentioned and these thic Jainas recite, telling their beads. By this they do not worship or salute the siddha but tell their beads "only with the object of stirring up their spiritual ambition and in order to remind themselves of the qualities a siddha must possess, in the hope that some day they loo inay reach their desired goal, and rest in perfect bliss in the state of nicana, doing nothing for ever and ever." Chanting the panchanamaskara-mantra 108 times and telling the beads purify the soul. The Jainas include Aum (Om) also in their incantation and interpret it as consisting of the following five sounds, standing for the five supreme ones (Pancha-parameshthins): a, a, a, ir and m; a stands for arhat; a stands for asarira, i,e., "diseinbodiedl", i.e., siddha; a stands for acharya ; u stands for upadhyaya ; and m stands for muni, i.e., saint, who is the sadhu, Images and sculptures containing figures of these five

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JAINA MONUMENTS supremo ones (pancha-parameshthins) can be seen in Jaina Lemples. They are invariably in the shape of chakrus standing on padmasanas. A very interesting specimen of this symbolic worship is found in i'ne temple at Tiruparuttikunram. The whole is in the form of a chakra which is supported by a crouching lion and two rearing yalis in turn standing on a padmasana attached to a reclangular bhadrasana. The chakra can compare well with the Hindu Chakra which is associated with Vishnu. Within the chakra is placed an eight-pelalled lotus (astadalapadma), each petal bearing a sealed figure or some article. The figures are those of the five supreme ones (arhal, suddha, acharya, upadhyaya and sadhu) while the articles are a dharmachakra or the wheel of the law, a wooden rest supporting the Jaina scripLure called sruta or sruta-jnana and a temple (Jina-alaya). In the (entre of the lotus where one would expect the seed-vesscl of the lotus, is the seated figure of the Tirtharikara in all his glory, attended by chamaras, triple-parasol, halo and the like. This chakra is symbolical of the worship of Navadevatas or the "nine (leities," they being the five panchaparameshthirs and dlarmachakra, sruta, chaitya and chaityulaya. The panchaparameshthins occupy the centre and the four cardinal points of the lotus while the latter four go in the petals alternately in the following order ; preceeding clockwise dharmachakra first, then srilta, then chaitya (an idol) and lastly chaityalaya or temple. 'The evolution of souls is based on three fundamental principles, viz., that man is not perfect, but can improve and can achieve perfection, that man's personality is cual, material and spiritual, and that by his spiritual nature man can and must control his material nature. The second of the principles is in striking contrast with the Hindu Adunitic doctrine of Brahman, or one soul which is in all and is all. When the material nature is entirely subjugated the soul is said to have been liberated or to have attained perfection. In its perfection-condition the soul

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IIRTHANKARAS OF THE PRESENT AGE "enjoys its true and eternal character, whereof the characteristic is the four infinities-infinite perception of faith, infinite knowledge, infinite power and infinite bliss." And such a soul is. called a Siddha. 57 TIRTHANKARAS OF THE PRESENT AGE (Vartamanakala-Tirthankaras)-Images of the 24 Tirthankaras of the present age are usually placed on highly sculptured asanas, generally padmasanas. In North Indian temples they are generally of marble, white mostly except in the cases of Mallinatha, Munisuvrata, Neminatha and Parsvanatha, where they are often black. There is no such preference in South India for white marble and though we do find it in some of the Jaina temples here it is due to North Indian influence. Ordinary granite is more often selected for image-making than polished stone or any other material, it being maintained that the colossal statues at Sravana Belgola, Karkal and Yenur which are hewn out of rocks justify the selection. Tirthankara images are luckily found only in two attitudes, sitting and standing. There, however, appears to be marked preference for the former attitude. Twenty-one Tirthankaras are said to have attained nirvana in the kayotsarga attitude, i.e., standing erect as, do Bharata and Bahubali at Sravana Belgola, while the other three d'd so while sitting on a padmasana. These three are Rishabhadeva, Neminatha, and Mahavira, who are considered the most important of all. The attitude in which they attained nirvana was thus specially emphasised and came later to be sometimes associated with all the twenty-four. When colossal statues of any Tirthankara were made they were hewn out of boulders, the standing posture being mostly preferred. 8

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58 JAINA MONUMENTS Seated images of Tirthankaras always have the legs crossed in front, the toes of one foot resting close upon the knee of the other, and the right hand placed on the left in the lap, both the palms facing upwards. All are so alike when thus represented that the need appears to have been felt to differentiate them by certain devices which are known as chihnas or lanchhanas. These emblems are usually carved on the pedestals or asanas on which the images are installed. In the case of Parsvanatha, snake-hoods numbering seven are shown over his head and sometimes a snake with a single hood or without hood on the pedestal. This is to distinguish him from Suparsvanatha, the seventh Tirthankara, who has also snake-hoods over his head, though the number of the hoods rarely exceeds five. To avoid even the slightest confusion the svastika symbol has been prescred for Suparsvanatha, which is scrupulously engraven in all images of this Tirthankara. Digambara images are all nude while those of the Svetambaras, are dressed and sometimes decorated with crowns and ornaments. They have a triple umbrella called mukkodai in Tamil over their heads which is surrounded by a bhamandala or holo. At the base of the asanas are sometimes found nine figures representing the nine planets (navagrahas). On the front of the asanas are usually carved two small figures. To the right of the Tirthankara stands a male figure representing the Yaksha or male attendant deva of that particular Tirthankara; to his left stands the corresponding female figure representing the particular Yakshini or female attendant devi of that particular Tirthankara. Sometimes between these attendants is a small panel in which the figure of a devi called Vidyadevi is often shown. Eight auspicious marks called ashta-mangalas, viz. parasol, flag, flywhisk, Svastika, mirror, vase (Kalasa) powder-flask and a throne seat, are sometimes shown on the asanas.

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METAL IMAGES FROM ORISSA 59 METAL IMAGES 1. PAHARPUR, RAJSHAHI DISTRICT, BENGAL. The metal images found at Paharpur form an insignificant lot as compared with those discovered at Nalanda, Kurkihar and Chittagong. It is not easy to understand why Paharpur has failed to produce any specimens of this Art. Among the images discovered that of Haragouri is the most ornamental and has to be attributed on stylistic grounds, to the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century A.D. To the same class have to be assigned the images of Ganesa, Buddha, Jina and Kubera. The existence of a Jaina monastic establishment at Vatagohali in Paharpur is attested to by inscriptions of the 4th century A.D. TIRTHANKARA : (height 3'') : Now in the Indian Museum. Standing erect on a padmasana between two indistinct figures, probably worshippers. Hair on the head is gathered in a top-knot and lied, as in Buddha images. It is interesting indeed to find that all the three important faiths were represented in the morastery at Paharpur. METAL IMAGES FROM ORISSA (NOW IN THE INDIAN MUSEUM) The Jaina metal images from Orissa represent the Tirthankaras. Such are : 1, RISHABHADEVA: Height with pedestal 1'-"", without pedestal 91" (Figured in A. S. I. A. R. 1934-85, pl.XXIN, 4)

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60 JAINA MONUMENTS Found in mound along with two more Jaina images (Nos. 2 and 3) of Tirthanakaras at Kakatpur on the bank of the Prachi river, District Puri. The god is standing in Samabhanga and naked, on a padmasana attached to a bhadrasana in front of which reclines the bull, the cognizance of the first Tirthankara. "Two slots on the bhadrasana and nails behind the figure suggest that there was once a prabha attached to the figure which is now iniss ng. Hair on the head is arranged in a high jatamukuta with a central vertical band partitioning the jatas in symmetrical rows of jatas as in stone sculptures of Padmapani and Vajrapani of the 78th century A.D. from Kendrapara, Orissa (Chanda, Explorations in Orissa, pl. VI, figs. 1 and 3). Twisted locks of jatas, three on each side, overhang the shoulders giving to the whole (jatamukuta and head) the appearance of a vimana. The image inay date from 7-8th century A.D. like the Kendrapara sculptures referred above. 2. RISHABHADEVA: Height with pedestal 43" ; without pedestal 3". Standing naked on a padmasana attached to a bhadrasana which reveals a row of 8 siddhas seated and a couchant bull (the cognizance of this Tirthaikara) in front, Similar to No. 1 except that instead of the jatamukuta there is a small ushnisha on the crown, the hair which has been cut closely showing only little curls as in the case of Buddha images. Datable like No. 1, Three letters in early Brahni have been engraved, unusually though on the back of the image. They read ga ya da. As the image is definitely a late specimen the letters must be forgeries. 8. TIRTHANKARA, PROBABLY RISHABHADEVA: Height with pedestal 31" ; without pedestal 3" : Similar to No. 2. but without bhadrasana' or the lanchhana. A similar forgery of letters

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JAINA IMAGES FROM GWALIOR the in early Brahmi can be seen on the back of the image, letters reading ja ka pa. Here as well as in the previous image the writings convey no sense. Of same date as No. 1. 61 4. RISHABHADEVA: 43". The Tirthankara is seated in samaparyanka on a padmasana attached to a pedestal with its front in five recesses. The bull is seen couchant in front of the god. The hair is arranged like a jatamukuta as in the case of No. from Kakatpur. The god is flanked by a standing Jina on either side (the left one is broken and missing), the lanchhana, the bull, being shown near the legs. Though at first sight the flanking gods may be mistaken for the Sasanadevatas of Rishabhadeva, the fact that one of them who alone remains, the other having broken away, stands naked with the bull for his lanchhana, shows that Rishabhadeva was meant in both cases. There were writings in medieval characters on the asana (both in front and behind) which owing to heavy metallic pittings (the image is in a bad state of preservation) could not be easily read. The image was found near a tank at Balipatna, near Bhuvanesvar, District Puri, and may date from the 10th-11th century A D 3. JAINA IMAGES FROM GWALIOR. A copper shrine and four Jaina figures representing the Tirthankaras were found in 1869 in the course of excavations in the Gwalior fortress and were presented by the Government of India. They are now in the Indian Museum. Both the shrine and the Tirthankara images appear to date from the 10th-11th centuries A.D. They are:

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62 JAINA MONUMENTS 1. PADMAPRABHA: the 6th Tirthankara. Height witir pedestal 5}", without pedestal 3". Seated in sam paryanka on a padmasana attached to a bhadrasana and against a back piece which reveals grooved knobs and flames as in Nalanda bronzes. A padam (the red lotus) which is the lanchhana of this Tirthankara is marked on the padmasana in front. An ushnisha and curly hair characterise the head. 9. CHANDRAPRABHA: the 8th Tirtharkara. Total height 101", height of image alone 5". Seated in samparyanka on a bhadrasana and against a backpiece which presents certain decorative details recalling Nalanda. Such are grooved knobs on the sides, flanking makara heads and halo with its edge of beadcourse and occasional flames. The halo is surmounted by the crescent which stands for the lanchhana of this Tirthankara who can be identified as Chandraprabha. Srivatsa mark can be seen in the middle of the chest. Facial type remainds one of Chittagong Buddhas and is also found in Nalanda; hence can be said to date from 10-11th centuries A.D. 3. NANDISVARA IN THE FORM OF A SHRINE : Inscribed. Height 1'-6".75; base is 6".25 square. A quadrangular and pyramidal tower surmounted by an amalaka and much corroded, is placed on a square base, and consists of three storeys each of which is supported by a pillar at each angle, the storeys diminishing in height from below upwarcis. Figures of the 24 Tirthankaras are arrang ed on these storeys, 12 on the bottom one - g on each side - and all standing ; 8 on the middle one - 2 on each side - and all seated in samparyanka. Among the four on the top can be made out Parsavanatha who can be distinguished by a canopy of five snake hoods over his head. All the Tirtharkaras bear the triangular Srivatsa mark on their chests.

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69 NAHAR'S COLLECTION The specimen is a symbolical representation of one of the dvipas special to Jaina cosmology, called Nandisvara-dvipa, where the Jinas (Tirthankaras) are said to be worshipped in the 52 temples by the devas and other highly spiritual souls. This dvipa or continent is described as being filled with "temples, theatre-pavilions, arenas, jewelled platforms, beautiful stupas and statues, fair chaitya-trees, Indra-dhyajas, and divine lotus-lakes in succession and that "in the various temples and palaces here the devas in all their splendour, together with their retinues celebrate eight-day festivals* on the holy days of the Arhats or the Jinas". Traces of an inscription, badly weathered, can be made out on one of the side rims of the lower-most storey. What remains reads as hi....na da....dhi. The writings are in early characters, say 4-5th centuries A.D., too early indeed for the specimen which can hardly date earlier than the 9-10th centuries A.D., and convey no sense in their present incomplete and mutilated condition, 4. NAHAR'S COLLECTION. A copper image of Tirthankara probably Mahavira from Puran Chand Nahar's collection (Calcutta) is of exceptional interest to the Taina artist as it is of the class popular in South Kanara and also bears an inscription in old Kanarese characters of about the 12th century A.D. reading as "Sri Jinavalabhana Sajjananagiya jayamadisida pratime". * Tl:e Jainas celebrate this Parvan thrice a year, in their temples, during the months of Asadha, Kartika and Phalguna from the 8th to the Purnima.

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64 JAINA MONUMENTS "Image (of Tirthankara) set up or consecrated by the good! Sri Jina-vallabha". The image being inscribed serves as a guide to date the large number of similar Jaina images in the same style that hail from South Kanara. From a photograph of his image in my possession I could just make out as the lanchhana the figure of lion (?), in frontal pose from which its identity as Mahavira becomes clear. 3. SOUTH INDIAN BRONZES. (a) BELLARY DISTRICT, HARPANAHALLI TALUK, KOGALI VILLAGE. (Now in the Madras Museum and found while digging for carth in 1936.) (i) TIRTHANKARA SUMATINATHA - BRONZE: Total height 32.5 c.m. Width 21.5 c.m. Seated on padmasana attached to a simhasana. The chakra his cognizance is present on the pedestal between two lions which indicate the Simhasana. There is an inscription in Kanarese on the left side of the pedestal which reads as "Svasti Sri silo (to?) ma si lpi ya pra ti me." To the pedestal is fixed an elaborate prabhavali in the shape of a vimana presenting the following :- Yaksha and Yakshini on either side of the Tirthankara; there are chamaradharinis one on either side of the Tirthlankara ; bhamandala and Mukkodai. A dwarf is seated by the side of the Yakshini. (ii). MAHAVIRA - BRONZE : Total height 36-3 C.M. Total width 19.5 c.m. Standing on a padmasana attached to

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JAINA BRONZES 65 a rectangular base supported on four legs. Two projections on either side of the base bear the Yaksha and Yakshini of Mahavira. An elaborate prabhavali (broken into two or three pieces) shows the following :- "Twenty--three Tirtharkaras arranged in a row with Parsvanaha the twenty-third perched on the top, chamaras one on either side of Mahavira, bhamandala and Mukkodai. The image is of fine finish with curly lock on the head and long tufts of hair hanging on either side of the head. ciii) MAHAVIRA BRONZE : Total height 13.3 c.mn Total width 7.4 c.m. Seated on a perforated asana supported by a pedestal bearing the lion placed between two kneeling worshippers. The seat supports a prabha on which can be seen two ganadharas and the Bidyadevi special to Mahavira, the latter holding a bock in her hands. The Yakshas stand on either side of Mahavira. (iv) MAHAVIRA - BRONZE : Total height 29 c.m. Standing on a pedestal the front of which bears three lions, the central one being the lanchhana while the flanking ones indicate the simhasana. The image is broken into three parts and stands in front of a prabha also broken bearing bhamandala and Mukkodai. The pedestal has an inscription in Kanarese which reads "ba lla nte bhi ya ya bbe sa di." (v) TIRTHANKARA - BRONZE : Height of the figure 20.5 c.m. Height of pedestal z c.m. Standing on a pedestal in front of a broken and damaged prabha parts of which are missing. One of the parts of the prabha contains the mukkodai with finial, and another part represents the bhamandala which is secured to the figure.

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JAINA MONUMENTS (vi) PARSIANATHA BRONZE. Total height 17.5 c.m. Standing on a padmasana. A fivehooded cobra is attached to his back with its hoods spread over his head. 66 TIRUMALI VILLAGE-POLUR TALUK, (vii) umalai village-Polur taluk, North Arcot district. Copper idol of CHANDRAPRABHA. fr. Ir. 1927. Seated in d'yana en bhadrisena and against a back ground formed by a circular prabhavali, the latter showing in elegant juxta position mukkodai, diksha vrksha, bhamandala, and flanking chamaradharas. Though lanchhana is not found, the image according to the local tradition is called Chandraprabha. (viii) MAHAVIRA, locality unknown. A bronze statuette of rather crude workmanship, with its locality unknown represents Mahavira with the lanchhana, lion on the pedestal, between two other similar lions-all in frontal pose. The god is shown sitting in dhyana against a back piece with flanking attendants depicted on it in relief. The back pieces recall Pala models and the whole, with its history unknown may be either from East India or executed after East Indian model. (b). RECENT FIND OF JAINA BRONZES IN NORTH KANARA DISTRICT In the course of the historical and manuscript survey of the Bhatkal Petha (North Kanara district) in February 1940 a large find of Jaina bronzes was secured at Haduvalli, Kaikini and Bhatkal. This part was once subject to the rule of Jaina chieftains from the Alupas down to the late Vijayanagara period and there are a number of Jaina vestiges in this tract. The basadis are at

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JAINA BRONZES 67 present in a miserably dilapidated condition and the whole area is overgrown with thick forest, Access lo this part is not an easy task. Among the Jaina images which belong to the early Vijayanagara period, the following figures of the Tirthankaras identifiable fiom the emblems on the pedestal are found :1. Sambha-nalha (big size) 2. Ajitanatha 3. Puspadanta 4. Mallinatha 5. Santinatha 6. Sitalanatha 7. Suparsvanatha 8. Sumatinatha 9. Viinalanallia (small size) 10. Santinatha 11. Padmaprabha 12. Dharmanatha 13. Kunthunatha 14. Mallinatha 15. Naminatha 16 Vasupujya 17 Adinatha (big, seated) 18. Bahubali (not a Tirthankara) Most of these are standing in Kayotsarga pose on a beautifully decorated pedestal with an artistically depicted prabhavali. The Yakshas and Yakshis are carved on the pedestal. A number of vacant pedestal and prabhavalis have also been secured. Besides these, there are in this find separate images of Padmavati, Brahmadeva (Kshettrapala) riding on horse-back, buffaloes and Chaudis and a miniature Nandisvara? metal block with thirteen Siddhas-three on each side of the block and one at the top. This is a

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68 JAINA MONUMENTS rare find. More than 100 objects of all sorts in all were found deposited at Haduvalli in a holow metal block of a big Chaitya pillar (manastambha) wh.ch had been buried underground by the local Jainas lest the the images should be stolen away from the open and dilapidated basades of the place. The block forms the bottom-most prop of the pillar and bears an inscription of Saka 1407. Stone images of Padmavati and Brahmadeva were also found. The Tirthankara images which were found in North Kanara district in large numbers have no special interest Six photographs of the most important of the finds were sent at my request by Mr. Panchamukhi. And their description is as follows :PHOTOGRAPH 1: Head of Tirthankara. Date Vijaya nagara. (a) Adinatha: Seated in dhyana on a high padmasana. The image is of excellent finish recalling the best of the Vijayanagara period. (b) Nandisvara a symbolical representation in pyramidal form of Nandisvaradvipa, rising in three tiers. Several Siddha figures can be made out sitting on the sides of the pyramid in meditation. (Cf. Tiruparuttikunaram and its Temples, P. 181 and Plate XXXI. figures 3 & 4.) The specimen is crude and appears to be late (post-Vijayanagara) PHOTOGRAPH 2: PHOTOGRAPH 3 (a) Brahmadeva (Kshettrapala) on horse back and sword in right hand. Of Vijayanagara period. (b) Block showing 24 Tirthankaras (23 of them in miniature and the 24th in large

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JAINA BRONZES . 69 size) attended by his respective Sasanadevatas and Gautama and Ganadhara. Of Vijayanagara work. (c) Chaudi figure. Late. Poor work. (d) Two buffaloes. Late. Poor work. PHOTOGRAPH 4: Padmavati, Yakshini of Parsvanatha. Four hands, one broken. The other three hold noose, fruit and lotus. A snake-hood is seen over her mukuta. Hamsa is her vahana which is shown at her feet. Workmanship, though poor, recalls Vijaya nagara. PHOTOGRAPH 5: (1) Stone Brahmadeva seated in front of a prabha; (2) Adinatha seated in dhyana and (3) Tirthankara plaque with subsidary Tirthankaras in miniature and attendant Sasanadevatas. All the three are of Vijayanagara work. HAMPI, HOSTET TALUK, BELLARY DISTRICT. The Lainas formed a large and flourishing community in the Bellary district is evident from the large number of their temples scattered all over the district. They almost invariably selected a picturesque site for the erection of their temples valuing rightly, the effect of environment on their architecture. The Ganigitti Jaina temple on the Kampli road, two dilapidated examples to the east of the Elephant Stables, two more just north of the northern gopuram of the Pamapati temple and

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JAINA MONUMENTS another about a mile north-east of Hampi, standing on the hill side, amongst others are some of the Jaina temples of Hampi. We learn from the inscriptions, that in the reign of the Vijayanagara king Bukka Raya, as early as 1368, the king brought about a reconciliation between the Jainas and the Varmavas The fact that Bukka Raya ordained that "they should each pursue their own religious practices with freedom", tends to show that the Jainas at that period were an important and influential community. 70 CONCLUSION. In our search for Jaina vestiges in South India w have been > able to notice that in the case of monuments discussed already such as Sittannavasal, Tirumalai, Tiruparuttikunaram and places in Bellary and South and North Kanara districts which have produced the largest number of bronzes for our study, as well as in others there is a sharp tendency and distinction in the orientation, and disposition of the different classes of vestiges. The point can be elucidated thus. Jaina rock-cut sculpture is profuse in districts in South India, such as, Bellary South Arcot, Anantapur, Trichinopoly, North Arcot, Madura, Pudukottah State and South Kanara. Sculptures in the round in the local styles (Pallava. Chola and Vijayanagar) hail from Chingleput, Kistna, Malabar, Vizagapatam, Cuddapah, Pudukottah (State), South Kanara, Bellary, Tinnevelly, Godavari and Ganjam districts. The colossal statues of Bahubali (Gummatesvara) from Karkal, Venur (in South Kanara district), and Sravana Belgola in Mysore are world famous. Equally so are the manastambhas from the above places. The manastambhas in the Hampi Ruins, (Bellary District), in the Chandranatha temple at Mudabidri (South Kanara district), in

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CONCLUSION 71 the Nemisvaia temple at Karkal and in front of the Gummatesvara statue of the same places and at Venur, Guruvayankeri in South Kanaia district are specimens of the best architecture of the period standing for or symbolising Jaina cosomological concepts. Structural temples are found every where, the types being mostly Dravida and in a few cases as at Hampi, in the Nagara style of temple architecture. Noteworthy are the temples at Hemakutam in Hampi, Ratnagiri in Anantapur district, Chipagiri in Bellary district, Danavulapadu in Cuddapah district, Tiruparutukunaram in Chingleput district, Mudabidii, Chaturmukha temple at Karkal, Venur, Guruvayankeri in South Kanara district, Mettupudur in Coimbatore district, Singapalle in Ganjam district, and Tirumalai in North Arcot District. Special and unique to Jainism are the pyramidal tombs that one can see at Mudabidri and Bastis such as the Kathale Basti, which is a hall, in the village of Hosala, South Kanara district. Of especial interest are the Jaina memorial stones, most of them inscribed, and nisidis or epitaph stones, which (the latter) contain much historical information in their inscriptions and the best art of the time in the sculpture carved on them. A number of such nisidis from Penukonda, one of the vidyasthanas of South Indian Jainas, now constitute the Jaina Gallery of the Madras Museum. Space forbids me to multiply instances of Jaina vestiges. Of bronzes we have recovered quite a number, chiefly from South and North Kanara, Chingleput, Bellary and North Arcot districts and these are mostly of later periods. The truth seems to be that, as in Hindu temples, it was the custom to embellish every Jaina temple with a set of metal images (utsava vigrahas) to be carried out in procession during select festivals.

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MONUMENTS V ( Parsvanatha, 10th Cent.) Udayagiri (Rajgit) Plate I Plate II Standing Jina (10th Century), Vaibharagiri (Rajgir)

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leid SINININOW VNIVI JATYA VOVO VENTS Plate III Platc . . Rock Carvings of Adinath and Ambika-Khandagiri (Orissa) Rishabhadeva from near Kosam (UP.

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JAINA MONUMENTS Xiao Plates--VI Jaina Cave with carvings of Vardhamana, Valhmalai, Chuttoor Dist. (SI) Plates Carvings of Vardhamana detailed (p.18) Vall Caves. Chittoor Dist. (S. I.)

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plate VIII

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plate IX WU RS HORO es AM 2

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plate X . S . . we SS ' NA SENEN www BA . I E .. .

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JAINA MONUMENTS CHA Plates XI Plates XII

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VA MONUMENTS Plate XIII Plate XIT cft . sen *** . 0.14 0 k carvings said to represent Valli, Vallimalai Caves, Chittoor Dist. (S.I.) Detail of entrance to shrine, Tallava cave Temple 600-640 A, D.), Sittannayasal, Pudukottai State (S. 1.)

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JAIN VONUMENTS Plates IV Plates XV X S. TER ER . .

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Plate XVII JAINA MONUMENTS RSS DAN AV Painting of Khatika-bhumi (Lotus Tank) (p. 42) Sittannavasal Pudukottar State (S.I.)

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plate XVIII IV 17. 14

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JAINA MONL'MINIS Plate XXIV p enawaran tergantunan barnet s eprisonnementene RETRO AIRTER NATUREN SERIES AO 000 ooo0 CO L22 TO AR ME RFEDAC00000 37 hooo fiue OOOO 000000 000 00000 Painting of Samavasarana from Vardhamana Temple Mandapa Tiruparuttikunrarn (Kanchipuram) Chingleput Dist. (S.I.)

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plates XIX-X

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plates XX-XXII S SA . 4 ? ** FRASES * 20 WA e 8 384 LARAK Wk buat JE 2. 12.4 * Dancing gul ( 44 ) Lotus flowers and geese detailed

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JVINA MONUMLNTS Plate XXIII 003 Dancing girl, Pallava cave Temple, Sittannavasal, Pudukottai State (SI)

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plates XXV Plates III Mandapa, Neminatha Temple, Tirumalai Hill, North Arcot Dist (SI) Rishabhadeva V R S Museum, Rajshahi

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plate XXVII . B be GAS

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plates XXVIII Rocks showing the niches and Tirthankaras (p, 46) Tirumalai Hill, North Arcot Dist. (S. I.)

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JAINA MONUMENT'S Plate XXIX TPM Rock carvings above the colossal image of Tirthankara (p. 46) Tirumalai Hill, North Arcot Dist. (S. 1.)

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plates XXX Painting on the wall of the shrine, Tuumalai Hill, North Arcot Dist (S. I.)

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plates XXXI Colossal image of Neminatha, Tirumalai Hill JAINA MONUMENTS Plates XXXII Fei Li Brahmadeva Pillar, Karkal, South Kanara (S. I.)

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plate XXXIII -powe E ta westen 995, Standing images, Chaturmukha temple, Karkak, S. Kanara (S. I.)

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. Chaturmukha temple from South-East, Kakal, South Kanara (S. J.) JAINA MONUMENTS Plate XXXV SW SO

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plates XXXVI Plate XXXVII JAINA MONUMENTS S MISOR ' INS S SMELISED JODI 332 C.150 Finely carved wooden door in Chautar's Palace Mudabidri, S. Kanara (S. I.) Manastambha, Bappanada, Mangalore Taluk S. Kanara Dist. (S. I.)

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plate XXXVIII . ARA Image of Bahubali (14th Cent. A. D.), Hampi, Bellary Dist. (S.I.)

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JAINA MONUMENTS Kunthunatha Temple, Gangitti, Hampi, Bellary Dist (S. I.) 3 Plates XXXIX

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plate XI 98

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plate XLI " . 0.18 East view of Jaina temples, Hernakutam, Hampi Bellary Dist. (S.I.)

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plates XLII 2 SA Explore CARS KODER SA 1 21 WS ERNES RAZO

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plates XLIIT PM NE PA 28 SIN Dance and Music, Rani Cave Udayagiri (Orissa ) 2nd Century BC

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JAINA MONUMENTS Plates XLIV 3 , Zhi Shi Xi Zai Yi Qi 1 - - Bi Ayagapata of Lonasohhika Mathura lat. Century, B, C.

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Plates XLV JAINA MONUMENTS DEXTER DET 25 W 2 SEY ith Fragment Showing Worshippers Mathura, 127 A, D.

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