Arhat Parshva and Dharnendra Nexus

SR No.: 002108
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M A Dhaky
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1997
Total Pages: 204
Language: English, Hindi
Classification: Book_English, Articles, History, Art, E000, & E001
File Size: 8 MB

Page 115

Pārsvanatha images in Orissa and Bengal
with certain individual iconographic traits. For instance, a snake is present on the pedestal of the Käkatpur bronze image. Beneath the lotus seat of the seated image of Pārsvanatha on the right wall of Cave No. 7 on the Khandagiri is carved a pot (Plate 35). On the pedestal of his other image in the same cave is shown a lotus (Plate 36). At Bhanpur, the image bears the śrīvatsa mark on the chest. In some cases, the Tirthankara was accompanied by eight planetary divinities. One such image was found at Pundal, one at Ayodhya (Plate 32), and Jeypore and two are preserved in the Chaudhuri Bazar Jaina temple at Cuttack. Excepting Rāhu, the personified planets are in yogasana. The attributes in their two hands are as follows:
Surya
Soma
Mangala
Budha
Brhaspati Sukra
Sani
two lotuses; staff and pitcher;
rosary and book;
rosary and club (?),
rosary and pitcher; bow and arrow;
rosary and pitcher
At Ayodhya, minute figures of demonic and animal-headed creatures, aggressively advancing from either side of the upper part of the stele towards Pārsvanatha, probably illustrate the famous upasarga-tormentation inflicted on the Jina by Kamatha and his retinue.
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Pārsvanatha, as mūlanāyaka, is shown on a caturviṁsati-patta or stele showing 24 Jinas from Gadacandi near Podasingiḍi. Also in Cave No. 8 on the Khandagiri, he occupies the position of mūlanāyaka among the group of 24 Tirthankaras. At Khiching he has on his either side three Tirthankaras standing one above another in a vertical row. An image, kept in the Chaudhuri Bazar Jaina temple at Cuttack, the Jina is accompanied by four Tirthankaras in yogasana who cannot be identified. His image from Puri (Plate 38) is flanked on the right by Santinätha and Rṣabhanatha and on the left by two unidentified Jinas, all seated in yogasana. An image of Pārsvanatha at Vaidakhia has on its left the standing figures of Säntinätha and Mahavira and on its right Candraprabha and Rṣabhanatha.
Pārsvanatha also appears on caumukha votive shrines. Thus a caumukha, in the Cuttack Caudhuri Bazar Jaina temple, has on its four faces Jina Rṣabha, Santinatha, Pārsvanatha, and Vardhamana.
In order to suggest an emaciated body, resulting from the severity of their ascetic life, deep concave indents were produced on the sculptured figures of the