Jain Journal 1975 01

SR No.: 520037
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 36
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 2 MB

Page 28

JAIN JOURNAL
on bhadrāsana, is sheltered in a rathikā (Fig. 2). The divinity rides over a mūșika and carries an elephant-tusk, an axe, a lotus bud and a pot containing sweet-meats. The trunk somewhat mutilated is applied to the modaka-pātra. Ganesa is embellished with the karanda-mukuta, udara-bandha, and nāga-yajñopavīta.
Narlai, located in the Pali district of Rajasthan, has yielded two figures of Ganesa, assignable to the twelfth century. Both the figures of elephant-headed Ganesa represent him as seated in lalitāsana. Of the two sculptures, one is incorporated in the entrance wall of the Neminatha temple, while the other is lying uncared in the compound of the Suparsvanatha temple. The first figure shows the four-armed deity as bearing the mudrā (?), a padma, a padma and the modaka-pātra. His mūșika mount is shown on the left. The second figure renders Ganesa as possessing two arms (Fig. 3). Surprisingly enough, Ganesa rides over a meșa (ram) and holds a mace and a noose respectively in his right and left hands. It is to be noted that the figure completely violates the iconographic prescriptions of the Jaina works in regard to both the conveyance and attributes.
On the basis of the study of the sculptures of Jaina Ganesa, it is apparent that except for the rendering of an axe and the pot of laddukas with mūșika vāhana, the artists have violated the iconographic prescriptions of the Jaina works. As against the injunctions of the Jaina texts, the representation of the padma, ankuśa and svadanta is guided by the prescriptions of the Hindu works, which all similarly envisage his own tooth, an axe, a lotus and the modaka (or modaka-pātra) for the four-armed Ganesa. Besides, a few later works also prescribe such symbols as the ankuša, nāga and triśāla with four-armed Ganesa. 8
Aparajitaprccha : 212.35-37; Matsya Purana : 260. 52-55; Agni Purana : 50.23-26; Rupamandana : 5.15. See, Awasthi, Ramashraya, Khajurahoki Deva Pratimayen (Hindi), Agra, 1967, p. 36: foot-notes. Banerjea, Jitendra Nath, The Development of Hindu Iconography, Calcutta, 1956, p. 358.