Jain Rup Mandan

SR No.: 001961
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Abhinav Publications
Publication Year: 1987
Total Pages: 466
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Art
File Size: 27 MB

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122
Jaina-Rupa-Mandana
is a small figure of pot-bellied two-armed Yaksa with the cup and the money-bag in his right and left hands respectively while on the left end of the sculpture is a small figure of four-armed Cakreśvari with the Garuda-vāhana and a cakra in each of the two upper hands. The sculpture dates from c. late tenth or early eleventh century A.D. There is another Pañcatirthi of Adinatha with similar iconography in the Khajuraho Museum (DGA's negative 179 of 1923-24). An elaborately carved Caturvimśati-Pasta sculpture of Rşabhanātha in the Adinātha temple at Khajuraho has the same iconographic type of the Yakşa and the Yaksi. The Jina has prominent hair-locks on the shoulders, a mutilated bull lañchana on the right side of the dharmacakra. The Jina is sitting in padmāsana on a cushioned decorated seat with a lotus bud in front of the central diamond motif and one lotus bud on each end (DGA's negative 143 of 1923-24). These three lotus buds placed in this position do not signify the lañchana of the Jina since the Jina in this case is unmistakably Rşabhanātha but we meet with such instances in other sculptures where there is no other lanchang shown and where the Jina has no hair-locks. In all such cases it would be difficult to identify the Tirthankara as Padmaprabha with the padma lañchana or as Naminātha with the nilotpala Inc . In such cases we must await further research.
One more Covīsi of Rşabhanātha in the Archaeological Museum at Khajuraho needs consideration (DGA's negative 123 of 1908-09). The sculpture was collected from the ruined Ghantai temple at Khajuraho and in the photograph we find Ghantai written with chalk on the lowermost end of the pedestal to mark its findspot. Rşabhanātha here sits in padmāsana on a decorated cushion and wears a jata overhead. On the pedestal are eight planets with the bull cognizance placed in the centre. On the right end of the simhasana is the four-armed Gomukha Yakşa while on the corresponding left end is a fourarmed Cakreśvari on the eagle. The sculpture seems to date from late eleventh century A.D.46
In the Khajuraho Museum there is another big sculpture from Ghantai temple. Elaborately carved are in all 52 figures of Tirthankaras including a big central figure of Rşabha standing in the kāyotsarga posture. The total of 52 Jinas signifies that this group symbolises the worship of 52 shrines of the Nandıśvara-dvipa. The Yaksa is two-armed Sarvānubhuti on the right end while on the left end is a four-armed Cakreśvari (DGA's negative 1633/60). In another sculpture in the Jardine Museum at Khajuraho, Mu. no. 1651, one finds figures of Lakşmi and Ambikā also besides the usual Säsanadevatä pair.
The Pārsvanātha templo at Khajuraho was originally dedicated to Ādinātha, so also the ruined Ghantai temple. Worship of Rşabha was indeed popular in Khajuraho. At Devgadh fort in Madhya Pradesh images of Rşabha were widely worshipped, more than fifty images of Rşabha are known to have survived at the site. Here we find Rşabha with a jasa in some images. On the simhasana of one Rsabha image in temple no. 12 is found a four-armed goddess showing the lotus in each of the two upper hands and the abhaya mudra and the kalasa in the two lower ones. This is identified by some as Lakşmi. In Svetambara traditions such a goddess figuring in the centre of the simhasana is identified as the Santidevatā, the Goddess of Peace.
In the courtyard of the Jaina temple at Budhi Chanderi, M.P., is a beautiful sculpture of Rşabha in padmasana with eight more small figures of Tirthankaras. Rşabha has hair-locks falling on his shoulders but no japā. Rşabha images at this site show Gomukha and Cakreśvari as the Sasana devatās. A well-preserved sculpture of seated Rşabhanātha from Garh, Rewa district, M.P., now preserved in the Tulsi Sangrahālaya, Ramvan, Satna, M.P., shows the same Yakşa pair. The sculpture dates from c. 11th cent. A.D. A sculpture of Rşabha in the Dhubela Museum (Museum no. 38), dating from c. Ilth century A.D., shows no figures of Sasanadevatás but in the centre of the simhâsana we have a four-armed goddess like the one on the Rşabha image in temple no. 12 at Devgadh which can be identified as fourarmed Cakreśvari.
A Covisi of Rşabha standing with the head and upper part of the sculpture mutilated is preserved as no. G.322 in the Lucknow Museum. The sculpture, of c. 11th century A.D., came from Mahoba in Hamirpur district, U.P. On the right end of the pedestal we have a figure of four-armed Cakreśvari, but the Yaksa figure was not carved, and on the corresponding left end of the sculpture we find a small figure of a Jina in padmāsana. Similarly a Covisi (?) sculpture of Rsabha, partly mutilated, hailing from Jaso, Satna. M.P., now preserved in the Allahabad Municipal Museum (no. 505) shows only a two-armed