Ambika on Jaina Art and Literature

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

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remaining three sides. Its first mention occurs only in the works of eighth-ninth century A.D. Moreover, in the Kusana sculptures four different Jinas, always standing, are carved on four sides, as against the original conception of samavasarana showing a seated Jina on the top (east) alongwith three images of the selfsame Jina on the remaining sides.
Under the circumstances, it would not be appropriate to conclude that the Jina caumukha of the Kuşäna period, showing four different Jinas on four sides, bear any influence of the conception of the samavasarana. It is rather difficult to find any traditional basis of the cenception of the Jina caumukha from the Jaina works. On the other hand, we come across a number of such sculptures in contemporary and even early art which might have inspired the fainas to carve Jina caumukha. It is not impossible that some such representations as the Sārnāth and Sanchi lion-capitals, multi-faced Yaksa figures and svastika33 may have been the source of inspiration.
We may divide all the Jina caumukha images into two groups. The first group consists of the images in which the figures of the same lina are carved on four sides. In the second group, the figures represent four different Jinas. The earliest lina caumukha figures hailing from Mathură belong to the second group, whereas the figures of the first group are carved in seventh-eighth century A.D. The figures of the first group are comparatively meagre in number and generally do not show the cognizances of the Jinas. The caumukha figures of the second group in most of the cases show the cognizances of only two, generally those of Rsabhanātha and Pārsvanātha, of the four Jinas. It is indeed surprising that even at a later stage when the cognizances of all the Jinas were evolved, the rendering of the cognizançes reinained confined only to the figures of Rşabhanātha and Pārsvanātha. This might be explained as a continuation of the earlier tradition of the Kuşāna lina caumukha from Mathurā wherein only these two Jinas (Rsabhanātha and Pārsvanātha) are identifiable on account of falling hair-locks and seven-headed snake canopy. In some instances from the Digambara Jaina sites, spread over in Uttara Pradesh, Bihar and Bengal, the cognizances of some other Jinas were also carved; they are Ajitanātha, Sambhavanátha, Supārsvanatha, Santinātha, Neminātha and Mahāvira. One of such examples, datable to c. eighth century A.D., shows the standing figures of Rşabhanātha, Ajitanātha, Sambhavanātha and Abhinandananátha, the first four Jinas of the
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