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 Vincent Smith's Jaina Stupa ... A sculpture of Tirthankara Munisuvrata, illustrated here as Fig. 72 (no. J.776 in the Lucknow Museum), has on top a miniature figure of a Tirthankara with Balarama and Krsna on his two sides. Perhaps this miniature figure of the Jina was meant to represent Neminātha. Incidentally it may be noted that there are two crowned figures standing in the kayotsarga posture on two sides of the central Jina and the vidyadhara pairs. They are Jivantasvämi images.
Since no Vāsudeva or Baladeva is connected with the life history of Rşabhanátha, the sculpture from Orai discussed above is especially noteworthy. Figures of Balarama and Krsna seem to have been introduced as attendants to or in a position inferior to the Jaina Tirthankara Neminātha in order to underrate Hindu gods, just as Išvara, Garuda, Şanmukha and others were later introduced as Yaksas or Sāsanadevatäs of different Tirthankaras. Mathura, the birth place of Krsna, was a stronghold of Krspa worship and the Pancarätra cult. Only Krsna and Balarama are introduced as cousins of Neminātha. No other relatives of other Tirthankaras are introduced on Jaina sculptures of the Kusana age. It is therefore reasonable to infer that figures of Krsna and Baladeva were introduced on sculptures of Neminátha in order to counteract Hindu influence in image worship amongst the masses.
In a ceiling in front of Devakulikā no. 5 in the Vimala Vasahi, Delvada, Mt. Ahu, we have a relief slab showing the water-sports (jalakrida) of Krsna, his queens and his cousin brother Neminātha. This is according to the Jaina accounts of the life of Neminátha. Similar scenes are also depicted in the miniature paintings of the Kalpa-sútra. The Kalpa-sútra miniatures also include scenes of trial of strength between Neminátha and Krsna (for these different types of scenes see Brown, W. Norman, Miniature Paintings of the Kalpa Sūtra, figs. 102, 104, 105, 106; Nawab, S.M., Jaina Citra-Kalpa-Druma, figs. 212, 213).
One of the ceilings in front of the Devakulikās at Vimala Vasahi contains a beautiful big relief sculpture showing the scene of Käliya-damana by Krsna. Another such ceiling shows the killing of Hiranyakaśipu by the Nasimha incarnation of Vişnu. Both these reliefs clearly demonstrate Brahmanical Pauranika influence in Jaina literature and art (see Jaina Art and Architecture, vol. II, chapter 23, and plate 186, figs. A & B).
A mutilated slab from Kankali Tila, Mathura, being a part of a Tirtha:kara sculpture, dating from the Kuşäna period and described by V.S. Agrawala,52 shows a figure of Balarama on one side and suggests that a figure of Krsna-Vasudeva must have existed on the other side of the central Tirthankara image now mutilated and lost.
Nine Prati-Vasudevas
The Prati-Vasudevas or the enemies of Vasudevas are also nine in Jaina Purānas, each Vasudeva having one such opponent.
Both the sects give the same list 53 They are Ašvagriva, Taraka, Meraka, Madhukaitabha, Niśumbha, Bali, Prahlada, Rāvana or Lankeśa and Jarasandha or Magadheśvara.54
The first eight are supposed to have been Vidyadharas while the last was a man of the earth.56 The Prati-Vasudevas, fighting with the cakra-weapon, perished from their own cakras, which went into the service of the Vasudevas at the last moment.56
Names of rivals of Vasudevas are met with in Hindu mythology also where they are generally called rākşasas or asuras. Täraka was killed by Kumāra or Karttikeya, while Madhu, Bali, Rāvana or Jarāsandha are well known opponents of gods and men and are usually killed by incarnations of Vişnu in the Hindu accounts. The name of Prahlada figuring as an enemy of Vasudeva in Jaina accounts is especially noteworthy as he is a great saint and a devotee of the first rank in the Bhagavata cult.
It may be noted that the introduction of these nine arch enemies of Vasudevas in the lists of Saläkäpurusas or Great Men seems to be a later conception in Jainism, although of course they figured in the accounts of Vasudevas as their opponents. Silanka, for example, called his work a CaupannaMaha-Purisa-Cariyam, thus acknowledging only the twenty-four Tirthankaras + the twelve Cakravartins + the nine Vasudevas and the nine Baladevas as the 54 Salákāpuruşas or Great Men. The