Jaina Iconography

SR No.: 011018
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: B Bhattacharya
Publisher: Motilal Banarasidas
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 247
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 87

Jaina Iconography
Ksatriya prince of Ikṣvāku clan named Vişņu and his mother was called Viṣṇudri. His home was at Simhapuri, the present Sarnath.1
The origin of his name has, as usual, a historical tale to explain it. "King Visnudeva possessed a beautiful throne, but unfortunately an evil spirit took up his abode in it, so that no one dare sit there. His wife, however, so longed to sit on it that she determined to do so at any risk; to every one's astonishment she was quite uninjured; so, when her son was born, he was named Śreyāṁśanatha, the Lord of good, for already he had enabled his mother to cast out an evil spirit and so do a world of good (Sreyāṁsa)." All his turbulence and forwardness on the part of both the mother and the child have been fittingly symbolised by the sign of a rhinoceros, so known for those qualities.
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Vāsupujya
The emblem constantly associated with Vāsupūjya, as we gather from Jaina books, is the buffalo. The other characteristics of his image viz. the Sasanadeva and the Sasanadevi, are known by the names of Kumāra and Caṇḍā (Dig. Gāndhārī). The tree which gave him shade while acquiring the Kevala knowledge is Patalika 'according to the Abhidhanacintamani and Kadamba () according to the Uttarapurana. A King named Darpişța-Vasudeva is to wave the Chowri or the fly-fan by his side.
So far as my knowledge goes, one separate figure of Vasupujya has only been found in Northern India. It tallies with the above description.4
From Jaina sources, we gather that his father named Vāsupūjya was a Kṣatriya prince of Iksvaku race. His mother is
I.
sfera ara faggeratai azeaz: 1 इक्ष्वाकुवंशविख्यातो विष्णुनामाऽस्य वल्लभा ॥
Uttara, ibid.
2. Heart of Jainism p. 54. For Sanskrit version Hemacandra :यथा गर्भस्थेऽस्मिन् केनाप्यनाक्रान्तपूर्वा देवताऽधिष्ठितशय्या जनन्या श्रेयो जातमिति श्रेयांशः ।
3. कदम्बवृक्षमूलस्थः सोपवासोऽपरा ।
Ullara, p. 113.
4. One good figure of the Jina is in Nathanagara, Jaina Temple, Bhaagplur.