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24
History of Jainism with Special Reference to Mathurā
worship in order that, I may realise these very qualities of His.57
In other words, it is not idol-worship; it is worship of an ideal. J.L. Jaini writes,
The Jains worship the ideal and nothing but the ideal, namely, the soul in its perfect condition. ...58
It is held that Jaina worship is not worship of a deity;59 nor does it demand favours and escape from calamities.60 It is worship of a perfect human being, of a soul that has freed itself from all bondage.61 The Jainas maintain that the idol is not a partrait of the jina; on the contrary, it is a symbol of his qualities,62 and by worshipping the idol of the jina, the Jaina devotee develops in his own self the aggregate of the qualities of the Perfect Man.63
Jaina scholars opine that image-worship was sanctioned and introduced in Jainism because the common Jaina devotee was already accustomed to worship of yaksas, nāgas, bhūtas, trees, rivers, etc.64 Jainism made a beginning with worship of stūpas, trees, āyāga-pattas, etc., and this was followed by worship of the pañca-parmesthins, i.e., the tirthařkaras, the siddhas, the ācāryas, the upādhyāyas and the sādhus.65 The pañcaparmesthins represent various states of spiritual progress and sect-hierarchy, and this group represents objects of Jaina worship.66 But worship of this group does not appear to have started up to the end of the first century AD.67
57. CUHI, I, p. 191. 58. OJ, p. 75. 59. AJAA, p. 62. 60. JAA, I, p. 41. 61. AJAA, p. 62. 62. Ibid., p. 63. 63. Ibid. ; ERE, II, p. 187; JAA, I, p. 41; SIJA, p. 39. 64. AJAA, p. 63. 65. Ibid. 66. Ibid.; JAA, I, p. 42; ACHI, p. 109. 67. AJAA, p. 63.
