Jain Darshan aur Sanskruti Parishad

SR No.: 010092
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Mohanlal Banthia
Publisher: Mohanlal Banthiya
Publication Year: 1964
Total Pages: 263
Language: Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 9 MB

Page 224

[ 21' ) . Then, there are other figures of several sky-clad persons, standing in upright postures, cxtant among the remains of Mohenjodaro, which are very dear to their historical plastic counterparts, such, for example, as are to be seen in the Jain rock-cut sanctuaries of Ellora and a Tirthapkara statue near Danvulapada, in Madras.?
It therefore stands to reason, in view of the above pieces bearing on Jain sculpture aod iconography, that a number of fundamental elements of Jain icons and their symbolism are of greater antiquity than a assigned to them by our modern scholars, and may be supposed to have originated in the art and aesthetics of the Pre-Aryan Bhāratiya culture. We may also note in this context the well known and much debated references in the Rg Venda, to the Siśnadevas, probably sky-clad (naked), and apparently despised by the Vedic priests. The references is perhaps to the nude icons, or to sky-clad śramaņas, the ascetics who practised austerity and were experts in contemplation, and who may have been wandering sky-clad. In historical times also the Jains were most probably the first to produce the images of their revered Teachers. We shall not be far from truth to maintain that the ancient Indians learned the production and veneration of images and icons of divinities and deified sages from the Jains. The famous Hathigumpha Inscription of king Kbāravela of Kalinga, datable in the first century before Christ, claims to have brought back from Magadha an image of a Jina, which had been taken away by a king of the Nanda Dyanasty, three hundred years before the time of
1. See B. M. Barua, op. cit. plates, and compare with V.A.
Smith, History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, Oxford, 1911, figure 110, p. 157, and H. Zimmer, op. cit., vol.
ii, plate 245. 2. Rg Veda, vii, 21.5; and x, 99.3; A.B. Keith, Religion
and Philosophy of the Veda and the Upanisads, vol. 1, H.O.S. 31., 1925, p. 75, takes them to be the phallus worshippers", and this is also the view of many other scholars too, but sce Hiralal Jain, op. cit., p. 342