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
went to Madhyama-Pāvā where a physician, Kharaka by name, removed the nails and cured the wounds. Next, Mahāvira proceeded to Jambhiyagama (Jşmbhikāgrāma) on the northern bank of the river Rjupālikā (Ujjupāliyā). In the field of the householder Samāga, in a north-eastern direction from the Veyavatta shrine (i.e. shrine of Vaiyāvstta=yakşa), under a Sala tree (Shorea Robusta), Mahāvira obtained Kevala-jñāna during deep meditation in a squatting position with knees up (ukkuda-janu), known as Godohikä position.379
Representations of some of the upasargas suffered by Mahavira are available in miniature paintings of the Kalpa-sutra,380 but stone plaques depicting these are rare. However in a ceiling slab of a bay in the Mahavira temple at Kumbharia, and in the Santinātha temple at the same place we find, elaborately carved with appropriate labels incised below each figure, scenes from previous births as well as this birth of Mahavira. The reliefs date from the eleventh century A.D. These reliefs include scenes of upasargas of Mahavira, but unlike the upasargas by Kamatha to Pärśvanātha, the upasargas suffered by Mahavira did not become popular in Svetambara and Digambara shrines.
ding to both the sects, Mahāvira had eleven Ganadharas headed by Gautama Indrabhiti Candanā or Candanabalā is reported to have been the head of Mahavira's order of nuns. According to the Digambaras, Mahāvira obtained Nirvana at Pavāpura in the Manohara-vana, on a jewelled platform (mahamanisila) in the midst of a lake.381 According to the Svetāmbaras, Mahåvira died in the town of Pāpā (Pāvā) in king Hastipāla's office of writers. In that night in which Mahāvīra died, the eighteen confederate kings of Kasi and Kośala, the nine Mallakis and the nine Licchavis instituted an illumination.382 This is now celebrated as Dipávali Parva, according to the Jainas.
Mätanga was his yaksa and Siddhayikā the yakşiņi according to both the sects, though the symbols held by them are different in the two traditions.
A pedestal of a Jina image, with only the feet of the Jina left on it, obtained from Kankali Tila, Mathura, is now preserved in the State Museum, Lucknow (Mu. no. J.2). There is no trace of a cognizance anywhere on the pedestal or below the feet of the Jina but the inscription on the pedestal records, after an invocation to Siddhas, the setting up of an image of Arhat Mahavira in the temple of the Arhats. 383 The image is dated in Samvat 299. Referred to the era of 57 B.C. it would be dated in 242 A.D., but if referred to the era of 78 A.D. the date would be 377 A.D. The pedestal with the inscription is partly mutilated but it seems that the daughter of Okharikā and the lay sister of Ujhatikā and Okha and Sirika and Sivadina were amongst the donors of this image as well as the Devakula referred to in the last line of the inscription.384 J.E. Van Lohuizen-De Leeuw referred the inscription to the old Saka era of 129 B.C. and read the date as 199 A.D.385 But as R.C. Sharma has proved the date is 299. When referred to the old Saka era this date would then be 170 A.D.
Another noteworthy image of Vardhamana is the one set up by Okharikā, daughter of Damitra (Demetrius) in the year 84 of the reign of Vasudeva. The sculpture was obtained from Kankali Tila, Mathura, and is now in the Mathura Museum (no. 490). The date would be equivalent to 162 A.D. acc. to its usual calculation in the era of 78 A.D. Then Okharika of this inscription and Okharikā of J.2 Lucknow Museum just discussed could be contemporary or identical. 386 This sculpture is also mutilated with only the pedestal and the crossed legs and palms of hands remaining. A lotus and a cakra are carved on the soles of each foot as marks of a Mahapuruṣa. In the centre of the simhasana is a dharmacakra on pillar on two sides of which are two worshippers sitting with folded hands. Next in order on the right is standing a naked Jaina monk with a piece of cloth hanging from his hand and concealing his nudity. The monk further seems to have carried a broom (rajoharana) in one of his hands. Two more standing males represent lay Jaina worshippers (Aspects of Jaina Art and Architecture, Paper no. 6, fig. 16). On the corresponding left side of the dharmacakra stands a lady with an object in one hand (possibly a rajoharana) and two more ladies with hands folded in adoration represent Jaina female lay worshippers (śrā vikäs). Thus the pedestal shows worship of the Jina above and/or the dharmacakra by all the four constituents of the Jaina Samgha, namely, the sadhu, the sādhvi, the śrävaka and the śrāvikā. The dharmacakra is placed on a pillar in this and many other specimens from Mathura. The conception of cakra-pravartana, religious or political, was common to all sects.