Jain_Satyaprakash 1941 08

SR No.: 521572
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jaindharm Satyaprakash Samiti - Ahmedabad
Publisher: Jaindharm Satyaprakash Samiti Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1941
Total Pages: 48
Language: Gujarati
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Satyaprakash, & India
File Size: 20 MB

Page 27

"(
એક ૧૨ ]
મહુડીની મૂર્તિઓ જૈન છે
[૪૫]
Moreover Jambhala and Hariti are not found associated with Buddha in the manner depicted here in late Buddhist bronzes. Only a few early Buddhist sculptures may have done so. In the later Buddhist iconography Jambhala is usually found alone, whereas Hariti's figures are scarce.
Both the objective (internal') and external evidence thus prove that the attendant figures are Jaina Yaksa and Yaksi and the central figure a Jaina Tirthankara.
Likewise the central image in Fig. 3 must be Parsvanatha and the attendant figures the Yakṣa Dharana and Yaksi Padmavati. Further confirmation of the identification of this image is to be found in an image of Padmavati (from the temple of Sitalanatha in Khetarpala's Pada at Patan) published by NAWAB6 The goddess is seated in lalitasana on a kamala (lotus) supported by serpent coils and a worshipping Naga or Nagini in its either corner. Similar figures are also shown on either side of the shoulder of the goddess. This serpent-motif is exactly identical with that represented on the pedestal of our figure [Pl. V, (b)], with this difference that in our figure the Naga figures are not exactly below the goddess' seat, as in the Padmavati figure."
Another point to be noted is that (the Yaksini) Padmavati is two armed only and seated exactly as the Yaksini in our figure. As a matter of fact as I have shown elsewhere in this Journal, before the Jaina iconography came to be canonized there was no fixed rule as to the number of arms the different Yaksinis should have. This varied to a certain extent, according to the region where the image was made.
Figs. 1 (Pl. IV) and 4 [Pl. VI, (a)] which have no other characteristic features must also be Jaina Tirthankaras and not Buddhas. The dharmacakra and a deer on its either side on the pedestal of Fig. 1 is not necessarily a Buddhist symbol, for a number of early Jaina images from Mathura have it.
6 NAWAB, Jaina Citrakalpadruma (in Gujarati V.S. 1936, Ahmedabad), pl. II, Fig. 6.
7 With a view to observing the similarity both these figures are here reproduced. See Figs. 1.2, ( આ ચિત્રા અમે આપી શકયાં નથી. તંત્રી )