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Jain Contributions to South Asia at the Royal Ontario Museum
Toronto, Canada
Elizabeth Anne Knox
Four important pieces of Jain sculpture are in the holdings herself, this yakshi promises to the devotee all the of the Royal Ontario Museum. There their contribution makes accoutrements of a happy and successful life. Thus for the a significant impact on the presentation of the artistic heritage Jain layman and his family of the Kushan cra, the benevolence of the subcontinent.
of these gentle female figures was a welcome inducement for Jainism came into existence by the 6th century BCE when their continuing acts of piety and devotion. Vardhamana Mahavira taught his ascetic doctrine. It may For the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum, this even have been in existence as a religious system from the stupa railing pillar gives evidence to the importance of the time of Parsvanatha, flourishing several centuries earlier. As central Indian sitc of Mathura and to the multiplicity of cults philosophically oriented, praxis based teachings, both Jainism finding their iconographic origins there amidst figures drawn and Buddhism offered a religious alternative to the from a very active folk devotion. The yakshi cult is oriented brahmanically oriented, sacrificial worship structure of the as a folk worship form during the Kushan period, with clear Hinduism of their day.
linkages to the pan-Indic cult of the God of Wealth, the yaksha From the eastern regions where the first teachings of Kubera. The yakshi herself, however, clearly takes on a more Mahavira were promulgated, the Jain community moved central role in later Jainism. She arguably also underpins the towards central India and settled in the area around Mathura importance of the feminine principle as it later appears both in Mathura, as a seminal religious centre, was the site where Hinduism and in Mahayana as well as Vajrayana Buddhism. early stone built monuments of the Jains were produced. By Mathura was also a central site where architectural forms the beginning of this era, stupas or memorial mounds as well as iconographic forms are articulated. The Mathuran consecrated to the memory of great teachers, such as stupa site provides essential insight into the development of Mahavira, had been constructed around Mathura.
later architectural forms. Though not a complete stupa, this The pillar from a stupa railing, ca. 1st century CE.(959.119 component of the stupa complex is instructive with regards Ex Heeramaneck Collection) shows the construction of the to the early religious architecture both of Jainism and of vedika railing around such a stupa. Upright pillars such as Buddhism and of the worship modes appropriate to the time. this were placed in the ground at regular intervals. Into the That several mandala forms under worship later in the history hollowed Junate shapes on the sides, stone crossbeams would of religious activities in the subcontinent are closely related to have been fitted. At the rear of the railing, a lotus indicated the carly stupa groundplans can only be demonstrated through religious purity of the site, while on the front of the railing, a the introduction of stupa configuration in the period of the lovely yakshi adjusted her ornaments and the arrangement of Kushans. her hair as she gazed into a mirror held in her left hand. Her T hus this Jain stupa railing from 1st century Mathura is a hairstyle, with that bouffant puff at her forehead, is key piece shedding light on many aspects of religious characteristic of the style of the early years of this cra i conography in South Asia during the ancient period.
Over her head, a railing forming a balcony, based on the One of the significant aspects within the concept of the forms of current wooden architecture, suggests the actual feminine in South Asian religious practice is that of the Mother. appearance of the vedika railing for which this pillar forms an Nowhere is the image of the Mother more beautifully upright. The railing enclosed the sacred space around the represented than in the portrayal of the Jain yakshi Ambika. memorial stupa thereby demarcating a pathway where the The 8th century post-Gupta representation of Ambika from devotee could walk as he offered homage to the Jina central India (988.97.1 Gift of Carol and James Gcorge) is commemorated there.
one of the treasures of the ROM collection. Ambika, having Circumambulation of the memorial mound dedicated to a abandoned her home with her children, fears thirst and Tirthankara was the act of piety undertaken by the laity of the starvation when miraculously a mango tree, ripe with fruit. Jain religion. The appearance of this yakshi, adomed by her appears overhead. She plucks the fruit and nurtures her gems and so obviously taking her case, symbolizes the children and herself. Because her iconography supplies her prosperous life well lived and regulated by right knowledge, with the lion as a vehicle, sometimes Ambika is confused with right faith, and proper conduct. Almost as a token of fortune Parvati. But one glance at the amiable expression of this lion
mount belies any possible confusion. JAIN DIGEST. Summer 2006/33 Jain Education Intemational For Private & Personal Use Only
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