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Pārsvanātha Images in Ellorā
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attack Pārsva with trident and thunderbolt (Plate 59).
In one of the examples in cave No. 33, an unbearded monk wearing kaupina and standing with folded hands with a begging bowl hanging from his arm, is shown in close proximity of Pārśva on the left (Plate 61). The figure may be identified with Kamatha, though this mode of depiction finds no parallel textual explanation. In one of the examples at cave No. 33, a vigorous depiction of a devil attacking Pārsva with trident is worth noting (Plate 62). The image, though mutilated, contains beautifully modelled figure of Padmāvati in atibhanga. Likewise, the figure in cave No. 34 shows the demon riding a buffalo and making a bid to attack Pārsva with mudgara-dumbbell (Plate 63).
Thus the sculptors at Ellorā worked with a deep sense of imagination and had avoided the monotony in the details for representing the episode of Pārsva's upasarga (which repeatedly figures) and also in integrating different aspects represented by the figures of Pārsva, Padmăvatī, and Sambara. The variety revealed in forms and postures of different figures and their elaboration as well as expressiveness in such representations are unparalleled in the rendering of upasargas of Pārsva. Perhaps the scale of the composition on cave-walls provided the space for, and the textual tradition before the patrons and the carvers supplied the necessary details for the dramatic elaboration of the episode. (A smaller image of seated Pārsva but without the upsarga episode is shown in Plate 60).
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. Bronze image in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay and an āyāgapata from Mathurā with
the seated figure of Pārsva in the centre, now in the collection of State Museum, Lucknow. Acc.
No. J253 2. The bronze image (c. first century A.D.) in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay and the two
figures at Bādāmi and Aihole (c. A.D. 600) show five-hooded snake-canopy with Pārsva. 3. Images from Kankāli Tila, Mathurā. 4. Vimala Vasahi, Dilwara, Mt. Abū. 5. For details, consult R.S. Gupte and B.D. Mahajan, Ajanta, Ellora and Aurangabad Caves, Bombay
1962, pp. 218-24; also the Jaina Art and Architecture, (ed. A. Ghosh), Vol. I, New Delhi 1975, pp. 188-91; K.V. Soundara Rajan, 'Ellora', Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture, Vol. I,
Pt. II (eds. Michael W. Meister and M.A. Dhaky), Delhi 1986, pp. 129-30. 6. Bāhubali (the son of the first Jina Rşabhanātha), as a result of his rigorous tapas and deep trance,
became a powerful symbol as well as a material image evocative of the ethos of self-sacrifice and of abissă preached by the Jinas. The same idea of rigorous tapas and deep trance are met
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