ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 01

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 272

kalaśa for Mallinātha, conchshell for Neminātha, lion for Mahāvīra, etc. Emblems common to all are the śrīvatsa mark on the chest, the unisa on the top of the head - both
being a post-8th century A.D. development in Jaina Sculpture. 2. The tīrthamkara icon is also identified by a pair of Yaksa and Yaksi, superhuman
attendants or śāsana-devatās, who seem to belong, as Ananda Coomeraswamy observes in his book on Yaksas to "an older stratum of ideas than that which is developed in the Vedas." It is not surprising therefore to discover through the medium of sculpture (and ritual) Yaksa and Yakşīs like Kubera and Ambikā, acquire a stark
individuality of their own beyond their honorable affiliations. 3. Miscellaneous gods adopted from the Hindu pantheon—Indra, śiva, Vişnu, Sarasvatī,
etc. Pañca-Mahā-kalyāņaka, the five archetypal events in the phenomenal life of Mahāvīra. These events serve as universal Jaina paradigms of consciousness and knowledge, described in the Kalpasūtra and depicted vividly in miniature paintings and sculptures. Almost every aspect of Jaina iconography, art and ritual is in some form or other connected with these five events.
The first event, the garbha Kalyānaka was the conception of the embryo of Mahāvīra in the womb of Devānandā, wife of the Bhahmin Rsabhadatta; and the transfer of this embryo (according to Svetāmbara scripts) to the womb of Trišala, a Magadhan princess with the mediation of the goat headed deity Harinegamesin. Both women saw in succession the fourteen auspicious dreams on the eve of their conception', which also form the subject of artistic renditions in paint and stone. The second event the janma kalyānaka constitutes Mahāvīra's birth in the phenomenal world; dīksā kalyāņaka, the renunciation; kevala jñāna, knowledge, enlightenment; and finally nirvāṇa kalyāṇakaa, the event of final liberation. These five events are celebrated in the Kalpasūtra, an excellent source of Jaina iconography from the Svetāmbara perspective, and are also recounted in Hemacandra's Mahāvīrasvāmicaritra.
The fourteen-dream motifs are often shown in relief carving in wood on the lintel over the door of the Jina shrine in the Jaina households. Harinegameşin is shown seated or standing in sculpture, alone or surrounded by children. In the relief panels in Candragupta Basti in Karnataka, Indra is shown purifying Mahāvīra after his birth, attended by four bulls. The enlightenment stage is usually represented by the 'samavasaraņa, the preaching hall of the
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