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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Jaina-Rupa-Mandana Bhrukuți and Cåmundi were his yaksa and yakşiņi respectively according to Digambara sources. The Svetambara texts call them Bhrukuți and Gandhari. The Digambara text Tiloyapanpatti however says that they were known as Gomedha and Bahurūpiņl. Nami obtained moksa on Sammeta-Sikhara.
Jayasena, the eleventh Cakravarth of Jaina mythology, lived in this age. Jinaprabba sūri says that Nami was worshipped at Ayodhyā which is described as a mokşa-tirtha.261
Muni Jayantavijaya, in his Tirtharaja Abu (p. 194), has noted a sculpture of Naminātha being worshipped in a cell in the Sabhamandapa of the Caumukha temple, Acalagadh, Mt. Abu. An inscription on a pedestal preserved in devakulika 45 of Vimala Vasabi refers to the setting of the stone sculpture of Naminátha by minister Yašovira in v.s. 1245= A.D. 1188 (inscr. no. 150, Sri-Arbuda-Präcina-Jainalekhasandoha). In the Pārsvanätha temple at Rohida, near Abu, Rajasthan, are a number of bronzes. Amongst them there is one dated samvat 1493 of Naminātha and another Pañcatirthi metal image dated 1565 samvat, installed by Sri-Samgha in Pattana-nagara (Pra. Sri-Samghena Pattana nagare). It seems that the image was originally installed in Patan and later it seems to have been brought to Rohida (inscriptions nos. 575 and 594 in Arhudorola-Pradakşiņa-Jaina-lekhasandoha). In the bigger Santinātha temple, Radhanapur, North Gujarat, is a metal Panca-tirthi of Naminātha installed in samvat 1517. Images of this Jina are also found at Satruñjaya.
P.L. Gupta in the Catalogue of Antiquities, Patna Museum, has identified a stone sculpture from Palma in Manbhum district as representing Naminātha but S.K. Sarasvati doubts the identification and suggests that the image represents Ajitanatha.262
Kalidasa Datta has referred to a standing image of Naminātha of Svetāmbara tradition found at Mathurapur near Raidighi, Bengal.263 Tiwari has referred to an image of Nami in cell no. 19 of the Lūnavashi, dated in 1233 A.D.264 This cell once contained the Asvävabodha-Sakunikavihära-tirtha-uddhära pata referred to above while discussing the iconography of Munisuvrata. I do not know whether after my visit in 1950-51 some image is transferred to this cell. Muni Jayanta vijaya has not referred to any such inscribed image of Naminátha in Lanavasahi. He might have missed it.
A sculpture of Naminātha sitting is carved on the wall of Barabhuji cave, Khandagiri, Orissa and another rock-cut figure of Nami is seen on the wall of the Mahāvīra gumphā nearby.
We have sculptures of Nami at Sravana Belago!a, Mūdabidri, and Venur in the groups of images of 24 Tirthankaras.265
There is a sculpture of Naminātha in the group of big sculptures of the Urwahi group, Gwalior fort. A water-lily is shown as the cognizance. Bhagchandra Jaina in his Devagadhu ki Jaina Kala (Hindi), p. 74 refers to a big standing image of Naminátha (his fig. 62) at Devgadh, temple 28, with lotus symbol on pedestal.
22. TWENTY-SECOND TIRTHANKARA: NEMINĀTHA (ARIŞTANEMI)
Aristanemi or Neminātha, the twenty-second Tirthankara, descended from the Jayanta Vimana according to the Uttarapurana and from Aparajita Vimana according to Tiloyapannatti and Svetämbara texts. He was the son of Samudravijaya and Siva devi of Sauripura and was born in the Citrä naksatra.266 Neminátha was a cousin brother of Krspa and Balabhadra, the ninth Väsudeva and Balarama of Jaina mythology. Jaina legends of Krşna and Balarama offer interesting comparison with the Hindu accounts of Krsna and Balarama in the Visnupurāna, Harivamsa, Mahabharata and the Bhagavata.
According to the Uttarapurāna, Indra called him Neminātha 267 because the Jina was as it were the spoke (nemi) of the Wheel of True Law. Hemacandra gives a similar explanation. According to another explanation offered by Svetāmbara writers, he was called Aristanemi because while he was in the womb, his mother saw, in dream, a wheel of Arista-jewels.268
Dark-blue in appearance, Neminátha had the cognizance of a conch according to both the sects. Nemi obtained kevalajnana on Mt. Raivataka while meditating under a Vetasa-tree (reed-tree, bambootree) according to the Kalpa-sutra. The Uttarapurana refers to the same tree when it calls it Mahavenu. Tiloyapannatti says it was a Meşaśnga-tree. Nemi had a following of 11 ganadharas (18 acc. to Kalpa