Svasti

SR No.: 007006
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nalini Balbir
Publisher: K S Muddappa Smaraka Trust
Publication Year: 2010
Total Pages: 446
Language: English, Hindi
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 45

SVASTI - Essays in Honour of Prof. Hampa Nagarajaiah
Kuşāņa period present the mindset of Jainas in particular and the very purpose of Indian art as a whole. Scholars generally believe that the conception of Jina Caumukhi was based on the early conception of Jina Samavasarana with advancement upon it. But this view is not acceptable for the following reasons. The Samavasaraṇa is the congregation hall erected by the gods where from every Jina delivers his first sermon after attaining kevala-jñāna (omniscience). It consists of three circular ramparts at the top of which sits the Jina (seated), facing east. The three other figures of the selfsame Jina on the remaining three sides were installed by the Vyantara gods to facilitate audience worshippers to have the look (darshan) of the Jina from all the sides. However, none of the early Jaina works like Kalpasūtra and the Paumacariyam refer to the installation of Jina images on the remaining three sides. Its first mention occurs only in the works of eighth-ninth century A.D. Moreover in the Kusāna Caumukhi images four different Jinas, always standing, are carved on four sides, as against the original conception of Samavasarana of having a seated Jina on the top (facing east) along with three figures of the selfsame Jina on the remaining three sides. Thus it would not be appropriate to conclude that the Jina caumukhī of the Kusāņa period, showing four different Jinas on four sides, bears any impact of the conception of the Samavasarana. It is rather difficult to find any traditional basis for the conception of the Jina Caumukhi from the Jaina works. On the other hand, we come across a number of such sculptures in contemporary and even earlier Indian art which might have inspired the Jainas to carve Jina Caumukhi. It is not impossible that some such representations as the Sārnāth and Sāñchi lion-capitals and multi-faced yaksa" figure and svastika" may have been the source of inspiration. We are also tempted to call these Jina Caumukhi figures, showing four different Jinas, equal in status on four sides, a form of composite (samghāta) icon, which thus marked the beginning of the rendering of syncretic image in Jaina context.
The above study reveals that Jaina images, besides their art (iconographic and aesthetic) value, could be the potent source of the reconstruction of contemporary political, social and cultural history. And their in-depth study in this context should now be encouraged.
8 U.P. Shah, Studies in Jaina Art, Varanasi, 1955, pp. 94-95; De, Sudhin, 'Caumukha a Symbolic Jaina Art', Jain Journal, Vol. VI, No. I, 1971, p. 27.
Adipurāna 22.195, 23.92; Trisastiśalākāpurusacarita 1.3.421-686. 10 P.K. Agrawala, 'The Triple Yaksha Statue from Rājghā!', Chhavi, vol. I, Varanasi, 1971, pp. 340-42; Deena Bandy Pandey, Notes on Indian Iconography, Varanasi, 1978, pp. 15-21. 11 V.S. Agrawala, Indian Art, Varanasi, 1956, pp. 49-50, 232.