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108
Arhat Pārsva and Dharanendra Nexus
Ellora in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra occupy a singular position in respect of history of architecture for its prolonged rock-cut shrine activities and the high quality of its figural and decorative art from c. middle of the sixth to about midtenth century A.D. and perhaps a little beyond. The site is all the more important due to its being the confluence of the three principal Indian sects, the Vaidika, the Buddhist, and the Nirgrantha. A series of five principal Nirgrantha caves (Nos. 3034), occupying the northern horn of the Ellorā ridge, are important from the standpoint of the study of Nirgrantha iconography and architecture of the southern school of pre-medieval and the early phase of the medieval times. These rock-cut hall-shrines, belonging exclusively to the Digambara sect, are datable to the ninth and tenth centuries a.d. The earliest Jaina caves apparently were carved during the reign of the Rāstrakūța emperor Amoghavarşa I (A.D. 815-881), the great patron of the Nirgrantha religion. These caves, among other Jina and subsidiary figures, contain several rock-cut images of Jina Pārsvanätha."
In Ellorā, Pārsvanātha is represented by over 31 examples, this being the highest number met with at any single Jaina site. The figures of Pārsvanātha in Ellorā, however, never occupy the position of a principal image, and is thus not found in the sanctum proper. Of the 31 figures, nine show Pārsvanātha in dhyana-mudra, the remaining in the kāyotsarga posture. The Pārśva figures are all carved either in the gūdhamandapa or in the vīthikā or fore-lobby. They show almost identical features, with a few definite peculiarities. The placement of the figures of Pārsvanātha, mostly facing Bahubali (in the corresponding position on the opposite wall) may have some underlying meaning. Such a placement may have been actuated by the commonality of the fact of upasarga (though of a different nature) in both cases.
Pārsvanātha in Ellorā, when seated, is usually accompanied by a triple parasol, fly-whisk bearing attendants, lion-throne, the hovering mālādhara-angels and the drum-beater suggestive of some of the asta-mahāprātihāryas, an invariate feature of the arhat images (Plate 56). On the contrary, the images in the kāyotsarga-mudrā show no prātihārya with Pārsva. This may be suggestive of Pārsvanātha yet not attained to Jinahood. The seated figures of Pārsvanātha in one case is, surprisingly, joined by the figures of Yaksa Sarvāhna and Yakși Ambikā.? The rendering of Sarvāhna and Ambikā in the present instance reminds us of their invariate association with Pārsvanātha at the Svetāmbara sites of western India. In a single instance, a seated figure of Pārsvanātha (cave 30) is carved at the lalāta of the lintel as well.
Pārsvanātha figures at Ellorā, seated or standing, invariably have been provided
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