Jaina Art and Architecture Vol 01

SR No.: 011012
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A Ghosh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 345
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 212

MONUMENTS & SCULPTURE A.D. 300 TO 600
(PART III the use of garments by Jaina monks. While a number of koulas and ganas found recorded in the Sthaviravali of the Svetāmbara Jaina canon Kalpa-satna and the Nandi-sätra (fifth century) are already mentioned in the inscriptions on the sculptures from Kankali-tila, Mathura, all the standing Tirthankara images bearing such inscriptions are carved nude. All the sitting images of the Kushan period from Mathura may also be supposed to be representing the Tirthankaras in the Digambara way, since there is no trace of any drapery on such images, even though the membrum virile is not clearly shown as in later Digambara sculptures.
The quarrel about nudity or otherwise of Jaina monks was reflected in the worship of images also. When the Svetambara-Digambara differences became very acute, all references in the Jaina canon not convenient to either of these sects were omitted, in the new edition of the Jaina canon in the second Valabhi Council so far as the Svetambaras were concerned, and in the works taught by Bhūtaball in Saurastra so far as Digambaras were concerned.
It seems that before the second Valabhi Council all Jaina Tirthankára sculptures were carved without any drapery. The beautiful sculpture of seated Neminātha carved in the age of Candragupta II in the Jaina shrine at Rajgirl does not seem to have any drapery; the same is the case with the standing images in the same shrine. The earliest image showing a dhoti worn by a Tirthankara is a standing bronze of Rşabhanatha from the Akota hoard in Gujarat (plates 65A and 66A). This is a very beautiful bronze, about 76 cm. in height, unfortunately partiy mutilated and with the pedestal lost. But the modelling is beautiful and in the chaste Gupta tradition, comparable with the exquisitely-cast copper Buddha from Sultanganj. In spite of the heavy damage, the image remains one of the finest Jaina bronzes from north India. The half-closed silver-inlaid eyes indicate the Jina in blissful meditation. The lower lip, which, according to a maha-purusa-laksana, should be coral in colour, is inlaid with copper. The badly damaged neck with three folds is again conch-shaped (kambu-griva), an ideal of personal beauty in the Gupta age. The beautifully-modelled torso (with broad rounded shoulders and thin waist (tanuvrita-madhya) also conforms to the Gupta ideals. Hair-locks falling on the shoulders help us to identify him as Rşabhanátha (Adinátha), the first Tirthankara. His hands reach the knees, and he is shown young and
1 U.P. Shah, 'The age of differentiation of Svetämbers and Digambara Jaina images, Bulletin of the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, I, no. 1, 1950-51, pp. 30 F.
f Above, chapter 11, plate 53 Editor.]
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