Encyclopaedia of Jaina Studies Vol 01 Jaina Art and Architecture

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain, Others
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 352

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Encyclopaedia of Jaina Studies
deities at the doorframes and the basement (pitha) of the Jaina temples. Their absence on the main facade suggests that in Jaina temples Ganesa has never been given a prominent position. One independent brass figure of Ganesa (c. 15th century A.D.) from western India (exact provenance unknown) is also in the collection of metal images in the museum of Indian Historical Research Institute, St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. Apart from the independent renderings Gaņeśa is also carved in the parikara-frame of the image of Jaina Mahāvidya Gauri in the Vimalavasahi (Delvada, Mt. Abu, Rajasthan).
Outside Western India, we find only three examples of Jaina Ganesa. Of these two are carved in the Ganesa and Navamuni caves at Udaigiri-Khandagiri in Puri district of Orissa, while the remaining one, which is also the earliest, is within the pedestal of an image of Ambikā from Mathura. The Jainas had not ignored the original fact of Ganeša being 'borrowed' from the Brahmanical pantheon and that he is the son of Ambikā (or Parvati), which is why he has been shown with Ambikä and Gauri in two instances from Mathura and Vimalavasahi.
The Jaina site at Osian has yielded three figures of Ganesa. All these figures carved in the Jaina devakulikäs, standing in the foreground of the Mahāvīra temple, belong to the earlier half of the 11th century A.D. Ganesa, in all the instances, is four-armed and seated in lalita pose on a bhadrāsana. Kumbharia has yielded only one sculpture, carved on the west side of the pitha of the Neminätha temple (A.D. 1135). The four-armed, elephant-headed, and pot-bellied Ganeśa is seated in lalita pose on bhadrâsana. As usual the mouse is his mount and the god carries an elephant tusk (svadanta), axe, lotus bud and the pot filled with sweet meats (modaka-patra). The trunk, somewhat mutilated, is applied to the modaka-pātra. Aesthetically the figure of Ganesa decked with karanda-mukuta, udarabandha and the nāgopavīta is elegant.
The icon type of Pārsva Yakşa of the 23rd
Tirthankara Pärsvanātha in the Svetāmbara tradition also has some similarity to Ganesa like having an elephant head (with one tusk) and sometimes holding as he does his own plucked out tusk and modaka (sweet ball). In visual representations from Vimalavasahi, Kharataravasahi (Delvada, Mt. Abu) and Rohtak (Punjab), the Yakşa is shown with elephant-head and snake canopy. The Yakşa, in four instances from the Kharataravasahi (A.D. 1459), rides either on a kūrma or a peacock and carries lotus, snake, tusk (or a stick like object) and fruit. Sometimes, the elephant head has only one tusk (ekadanta).
Ganesa in Jaina tradition thus has close similarity to Brahmanical Ganesa. Except for the rendering of elephant-head and an axe, the modaka-pătra in hands and mouse (as mount), the Jaina figures do not conform to the details of the Acāradinakara. On the other hand, the rendering of the attributes like lotus, goad, spear and tusk in the hands of Jaina Ganesa, is guided by the prescriptions of the Brahmanical works, which invariably conceive the four-armed Ganesa as holding tusk, axe, lotus and the modaka (or modaka-pătra).
BRAHMASĀNTI YAKSA Besides twenty-four Yakşas and Yaksīs, the Jaina tradition has a number of other Yakşas enjoying independent worship. Of these, Brahmaśanti and Kaparddi Yaksas are the foremost. The earliest references to Brahmaśānti Yakşa are found mainly in the Svetämbara texts belonging to 9h - 10th century A.D. The Digambara texts, however, do not mention Brahmasanti and therefore the figure of Brahmaśänti Yaksa is not found at Digambara Jaina sites. However, the Digambara tradition has Brahma or Brahmä as the Yakṣa of the 10th Jina Sitalanātha. There is yet another interesting Digambara tradition confined to south India. A special pillar known as Brahmadeva pillar surmounted by the figure of the deity called Brahmadeva was often erected in front of Jaina temples in the south.
Jinaprabhasūri in his Satyapura-tirthakalpa of Kalpapradipa (pp. 28-30, 14th century A.D.) gives a