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Jaina Art and Architecture at Mathura
on the ancient Jaina tradition called samavasaraṇa.168 In accordance with this tradition, high platforms were erected for the sermons of the jinas; the image of one of the jinas was installed in the centre of the platform, and the images of the same jina were installed on its remaining three sides in order to make him visible to the entire audience.169 He also opines that representation of four different jinas on four sides of the sarvatobhadrika-pratimas of Mathura was an advancement on the original conception of a samavasaraṇa or caumukha sculpture.170
The facts highlighted by N.P. Joshi's study of these quadruple images deserve notice in this connection. In three of these quadruple images,171 the image of Rṣabha, and in three of them,172 the image of both Rṣabha and Pārśva, are conspicuous by their absence.173 According to Joshi, these six images indicate that the sculptor intended to display either the same jina on four sides, or depict four different jinas other than Rṣabha and Parsva on four sides of these caumukha images. 174
These quadruple images were probably installed in open space within the sacred precincts of the main stupa. In a summary representation which occurs on a slab, possibly an āyāga-patta,175 four seated tīrthamkiaras - two each on either side of a stupa one of whom is Pārśvanatha - are represented in the upper register. This representation conveys the impression of four images which were either installed in front of the four cardinal directions of a stūpa or were set up within the stūpa-niches facing the cardinal directions.176 We learn from one of the inscriptions that these
168. SIJA, p. 11; MCH, p. 353.
169. Ibid., p. 12.
170. Ibid.
171. JUPHS, III, MM nos. B. 70, B. 71; SML no. J.235; MCH, p. 354. SML nos. J.241, J.242; MM no. 45.3214; MCH, p. 354.
172.
173. MCH, p. 354.
174.
Ibid.
175.
176.
SML no. J.623; JAA, I, pp. 57, 66.
JAA, I, p. 66.
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