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THE FOURTEEN-FOLD PATH TO FREEDOM
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depicted the celestial and other nonhuman beings which were at the service of the Jinas besides the support they received from humans. One can see Jinas accompanied by attributes and heavenly servants such as protectors, bodyguards, and gatekeepers.
Indus seal
On the picture shown here of the Indus seal we see on the right an ascetic devoted to penitence (arms down), accompanied by three (in physical reality invisible) celestial beings holding swords or sticks above the ascetic's head for protection.
Temples in the North Indian city of Jaipur (Rajasthan) also have such black touchstone sculptures, but most are made of white marble, though not always of a very good quality. In the old temple of Ladnun, North of Jaipur, a splendid statue of Ādināth has been found. Most later statues were made in the period which begins with King Vikrama – from about 50 BC, and in fact continuing to the present - of which period quite a few early icons can be seen in old temples. Historians tend to accept the Ādināth of Mathura blindly as the oldest, by which they create an enormous gap between the factual truth told by the Jains themselves and their own historical imagination. The original art we have seen in on the hills and in the caves of South India is unique and much older than the finds in Harappa and Mohenjo-daro.
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