Jain Journal 2006 10 No 04

SR No.: 520264
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 2006
Total Pages: 36
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 3 MB

Page 21

A. K. Bhattacharyya : Studies In Jaina Iconography
taste and touch. And in the very middle of this lotus pool there grew one big white lotus, the best of Nymphaeds'.
The vastness and the blue and clear water of the ocean of milk' signifying the extensive knowledge and influence as also the spotless and handsome character of the Jina, is perhaps responsible for its being included in the list of the auspicious dreams. The peculiar form in which the milk-ocean is represented, in ms. illustrations is well noticed in the medieval reproduction published by S.M. Nawab. The ocean according to the Kalpasūtra is said to represent a splendid and pleasant spectacle as it rushed to and from the shore with its wind raised, changeable and moving billows ! It abounded with great propises, fishes, whales, and other monsters of the deep !
The Digambara tradition which has sixteen dreams instead of fourteen as in the Svetāmbara, insert here the Simhāsana as the next object in the list. The Simhāsana which the expectant Jina-mother is described to have seen is stated to be 'adorable by Indra etc.'
The twelfth symbol, according to the Svetāmbara records is the Deva-vimāna i.e., celestial abode. Textual description 103 has it that the vimāna is to have 1008 stambhas with garlands attached to them and pictures of wolves, bulls, horses, men, dolphins, snakes etc., as also shrubs and plants drawn on them. The aesthetic sense out of which such a conception of the abode orginated is very high indeed. The abode is sometimes shown put on the back of a lion. The archforms of the abode, which terminates upwards in conical formations speaks, from an architectural point of view, of the late origin of the type which being very near the beginning of the muslim period was often imitated by the Muslims. The significance of the celestial abode in the list of the auspicious dreams is that the coming Jina is to descend from his place in heaven being carried as a vimāna. The actual terın
103. Kalpasūtra (Ed. by H. Jacobi), par. 44, p. 46, of. - attha-sahassadeppamta
naha-ppaivam jalamba-divva-damar īhāmiga-usabha-turaga-nara-magaravihaga-vālaga-kinnara-ruru-sarabha-camara-samsaţtakumjara-vaņalaya- . paumalaya-bhatti-cittam.