Mahavira Smruti Granth Part 01

SR No.: 010530
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Kamtaprasad Jain, Others
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Society Agra
Total Pages: 363
Language: Hindi
Classification: Smruti_Granth
File Size: 9 MB

Page 254

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भ० महावीर स्मृति प्रय।
worshipped by a group of monks (?). This indeed bears a close relationship with the Buddhist art of representing the wheel or the Dharmacekra which in early sculpture was a substitute for the Lord himself. Indeed to quote Buhler," the early art of the Jains did not differ materially from that of the Buddhists. Indeed, art was nerer communal. Both sects used the same ornaments, the same artistic motites and the same sacred symbols, differences occurring chiefly in minor points only. The cause of this agree ment is in all probability not that adherents of one sect imitated those of the other, but the both drew on the national art of India and employed the same artists." 12 The tri-ratna symbol, in Jainism represents the three-told character of the perfects, viz , Knowledge, Faith and Conduct. This idea of a triad whicb in Buddhism took the form of three Jewels, viz., Buddba, Dharma and Sangha was represented sometimes by the trilateral figure of trikona which according to Beal was used to denote' the embodied form of the Tathāgata' or sometimes by the trilateral symbol 2-u-m " It must be mentioned here that the Om in Jainism does not consist of the three syllabus a-u-m but rather of five viz, 2-2-2-u-m representing the five worthy, personages or Parmeshthis' to whom bomage is offered at the beginning of zny undercating or worship. In Brahmanism tao, the mystic symbol Om 15 sometimes represented in art is consisting of the five fold divinities Ol Brahma, Vishnu, etc, as in a very late picture from Baroda " The tri-ratna symbol in many of its varieties in Buddhism is available from the Buddhist sites of Taxıla and round about from early Kusāna period."
The consideration of the above piece of sculpture from the Kanbali Tilā at Mathura also leads us most consistently to the estimation of the place of the Cakra as the symbol for the Law which found conspicuous favour with early as well as medieval Buddhism. Cabra as the symbol of Rripa of the Vaisnaya iconography beginning from that of the Lord Visnu Hilda self is as early a tradition as to be traced in the very oldest of the Punch marked coins dating from the 7th Century B. C. The Cakra associated with the triratna symbols" 19 not peculiarly Jain It is also found in the Tasila art of the far pre-Christian era where it is undoubtedly Buddhistic It is toese
12. Epigraphie Indica II P 322.
13 For a fullor discourse on these symbols, aide A Getty, Gods of Northern Buddhism p 197 ff.
14 Annual Report, Deptt. of Archaelogy, Baroda, 1938–39, No. 99. 15 Arch Survey of India, Annual report for 1916-17 Fig No. 75
16 The Triratna in Jainism, it must be stated consists of Jūāna, Darsana and Caritra, and probably it was Jūäng or Looppledge par excellence, the home ledge of the scriptures not excluded that is the Dharma in essence The Caksa 10 art represents this Jiāps