Ambika on Jaina Art and Literature

Author(s): Maruti Nandan Prasad Tiwari
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 16

? Ambikā
uşnişa and the śrīvatsa are generally absent in the Jina images of south India. The figures of the Jaina Mahavidyās, the complete sets of twenty-four Yakṣis, Jivantasvamin Mahavira and Jaina tutelary couples and so, are conspicuous by their absence in south India.
While Pārsvanatha and Mahāvīra were the most favoured Jinas in south India, Rsabhanatha and Pārśvanatha were the most favoured ones in the North. Among the Yakṣis Cakreśvari, Ambikā and Padmavati were accorded the most favoured position in the North, while in the South the popularity of Cakreśvarī was replaced by that of Jvālāmālinī. North India has yielded the remains of both the Svetambara and the Digambara sects whereas the remains from South belong only to the Digambara and the Yapaniya sects.
The Indus Valley Civilization (c. 2300-1750 B.C.) is the earliest civilization of India. The figures on some of the seals from Mohen-Jo-Dāro and also a male torso from Harappa remind of the Jina images on account of their nudity and posture, identical with the kayotsarga-mudrā, all this much comparable with the Lohānīpur Torso. But nothing can be said with certainty until the Indus Valley script is deciphered finally.
Apart from the doubtful instance as above, we do not have any literary or archaeological evidence regarding any Jina image prior to Mahāvīra. Mahāvīra is never said to have visited any Jina temple or worshipped any Jina image. In this connection it would be relevant to make reference to the Jivantasvāmi-Mahāvīra image which is said to have been carved in the life-time of Mahāvīra (c. late sixth century B.C.), hence called Jivantasvāmin or Jīvitasvāmin. According to the tradition, a sandalwood image of Mahāvīra, wearing mukuta and other ornaments befitting royalty, was carved in his life-time during the period of his tapas in palace, about a year prior to his renunciation as prince. Like the Bodhisattva before reaching Buddhahood, Jīvantasvāmin also represented a conception which may be called Jinasattva. U.P. Shah, the first scholar to identity the Jivantasvamin images,' has accepted the literary tradition and conceded that Jivantasvamin image was carved in the life time of Mahavira. He has tried to reinforce his view on the strength of the two Jivantasvämin images of the early Maitraka period discovered from Akoță near Vadodara in Gujarat. These images exhibit Jīvantasvamin as standing in the kayotsarga-mudrā and wearing royal dress and ornaments, and one of the images also bears the word 'Jivantasāmi' in the pedestal inscription.