Lord Mahavira Vol 02

SR No.: 023277
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S C Rampuria
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 244
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 21 MB

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Lord Mahavira
and commerce.17 Bhiru, leaving the city of Roruka in a boat and founding the famous port of Bhirukaccha (Broach on the Narmada) on the west coast, would support the identification of Sauvira with the region of the lower Indus, on its eastern bank. This would easily explain the march of Uddayana towards Avanti of Pradyota, given in the Jaina accounts. 18 He had to pass through Marwar and his fight with Pradyota probably took place near Dasapura, modern Mandasor. Again, the story of an old city buried under a sandstorm is still current in Marwar and Saurastra; inhabitants of Bhillamala of Bhinnamala in Marwar and of Dhank in Saurastra still believe that their cities were buried in sandstorms raised due to some curse of a sadhu.
The above discussion of the sandalwood images of Buddha and Mahâvîra would show that the Jaina version is more consistent and probable; we should also remember that Prabhavafi was the daughter of Cetaka of Vesali whose Jaina associations are well known. So if there is a case of burrowing, the Buddhists seem to have burrowed from the Jaina accounts for images modelled after the sandalwood image of Mahâvîra are of a special iconographic type which could be easily differentiated from the more general type of a Tirthankara icon and are significantly called Jivita-or Jivanta-svami images.
But it is not unlikely that a sandalwood image of the Buddha was also carved in his lifetime, if not as an idol worship in Buddhist shrines, as a mere statue of a great man of the age. King Prasenajit of Sravasti, according to Fa-Hien, or Udayana of Kausambi according to Hiuen-Tsang could have done so. It is indeed significant to note that according to the tradition reported to FaHien in the beginning of the fifth century, the sandalwood image of Buddha carved in the latter's life-time, served as a model for all later images of the Buddha. Thus, according to the traditions current in the age of Fa-Hien, the Origin of the Buddha Image was in India-in the Madhyadesa-and not in Gandhara. This important evidence need not be discarded even if the account of Divyavadana be regarded as a borrowing by Northern Buddhists (under Mahayana influence) from the Jaina legend. Fa-Hien certainly had a greater chance than some of our modern scholars to know if the first Buddha image originated in Gandhara. 19
The Origin of the Buddha Image is a subject of great