Jain Iconography a brief Survey

Author(s): Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Z_Jinvijay_Muni_Abhinandan_Granth_012033.pdf

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JAINA ICONOGRAPHY-A brief survey
Introductory :
Prehistoric sites in India have not yielded as yet any definite clue to the existence of Jainism. A few seals from Mohen-Jo-Daro showing human figures standing in a posture analogous to the free-standing meditative pose (kavotsarga mudra) of the Tirthařkaras 1 or the seal generally acknowledged as representing S'iva as Yogi (in the meditative attitude) cannot in the present state of uncertainty of the meaning of the pictoscript symobols, be definitely used to attest to the antiquity of Jaina art or ritual.
Jaina traditions ascribe the first twenty-two Tirthankaras 2 of this age to a period covering millions of years before Christ, but modern criticism accepts only the last two-Pāras 'vanatha (250 years before Mahavira's Nirvaņa) and Varddhamana (Māhavira died about 527 B. C. according to traditions and about 467 B. C. according to some modern scholars)-as real historical personages.
The mutilated red-stone statuette from Harappa, though surprisingly analogous n style to the Mauryan-Polished-stone-torso of a Jina, obtained from Lohanipur, near Patna in Bihar, has, in addition, two circular depressions on shoulder-fronts, unlike any other Jina-icon known hitherto and could better be regarded as representing an ancient Yaksa, 3 The Harappan statuette being a surface find it is difficult to assign a date to it.
The Origin of Image Worship in Jainism, may, on the basis of available archaeological evidence, be assigned to at least the Mauryan age, c. 3rd century B. C.,
1. Marshall, Sir John, Mohen-Jo-Daro and the Indus Valley Civilisation, Vol. III, pl. xii, 13,
14, 16, 18, 19, 22. Jain, Kamta Prasad, in Modern Review, August 1932, pp. 152 regards some of these seals as representing Jinas (Tirthankaras). The Jainas believe that 24 Tirthankaras lived in this Avasarpini era, an equal number lived in the preceeding era (ara) called Utsarpini, and the same number will be born in the forthcoming Utsarpini ara. For the Jaina conception of these Evolutionary and Involutionary eras, see Jaina, J. C., Outlines of Jainism. Also Nahar, Epitome of Jainism Marshall, op. cit., Vol. I pl. x. a-d. For the Lohanipur torso see, Jayaswal K. P,. Journal of the Bihar & Orissa Research Society, vol. XXIII part 1, pl. i-iy and Banerji-Shastri, in ibid., vol. XXVI. 2.120 8 ff.
3.