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Historical Origin & Ontological Interpretation of Arbat Pārsva's Assoc.
35
hoods. The standing Pārsvanātha bronze in the Prince of Wales Museum (which I still maintain that it is not later than c. first century B.C. against the views of Moti Chandra and Sadashiv Gorakshakar),24 has the snake-hoods partly mutilated but they suggest that the figure had a canopy of five snake-hoods. Since the body of the Dharana Nāga is shown at the back of this figure there is no doubt that the image represents Pārsvanātha.
From all that has hitherto been said, it is obvious that there is no early literary or archaeological evidence before c. A.D. 400 to support the prevalence of the belief in the upasarga by Kamatha. However, as is clear from the earliest available examples, the association of the Näga with Pārśva is definitely older and possibly has some historical or an early mythological basis of which we as yet know nothing.
But even here we have some interesting comparable material from the Brahmanical and Buddhist sources. I have earlier shown close correspondence between the representations of Kamatha's upasargas and those of the assault of Māra on the Buddha.25 At the end of the attacks both Buddha as well as Pārsva got enlightenment, the supreme wisdom. Both themes have been popular in Indian Art,26 but as yet we have not been able to discover any representation of Kamatha's attack which is earlier than, or even contemporary with, the known earliest Buddhist representations concerning the assault of Māra. Both Svetāmbara as well as the Digambara pre-medieval and medieval literary sources give graphic accounts of the upasarga by Kamasha. For a comparison with Buddhist accounts the following few passages may be noted:
(1) TeilrechEmath HETZIEHYGRYTI
व्यधात् तथैव सप्ताहान्यन्याँश्च विविधान्विधीः । महोपसर्गात्शैलोपनिपातानिवान्तकाः ॥ तद्ज्ञात्वावधिबोधेन धरणीशो विनिर्गत्तः । धरण्याः प्रस्फुरद्रत्नफणामंडपमंडितः ।। भर्तारमस्थादावृत्य तत्पत्नी च फणाततेः । उपर्युच्चैस्समुद्रधृत्य स्थिता वज्रातपच्छदम् ।
-JIRYTUT, 73.137.41.
(2) Also see, Pārsvanāthacarita of Vădirāja, X1.57-87. (3) The upasarga, by Dharanendra (soul of Kamatha) is very elaborately described
in Padmakirti's Päsanābacariü, sandbi 14, pp. 117-32.
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