Jain Journal 1970 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 51

APRIL, 1970
Fig. 22
Risabha invents pottery.
Kalpa Sutra folio, c. 1550 A.D.
The early citizens suffered from indigestion because they ate their food raw. Risabha invented a pot (kumbha) for them to cook in moulding the first piece over the boss (kumbha). In the painting Risabha sits upon his elephant which is fully decorated and has its trunk upraised; on its trunk is the first vessel which he has just moulded on the boss of the elephant's forehead.
Fig. 23 A Jaina monk preaching to his disciples.
Kalpa Sutra folio, c. 1550 A.D.
On the left is the monk. Before him is sthapana or representation of his Guru. At the right top is a lay disciple and at the bottom a monk disciple with folded hands. This piece also seems to be wrongly pasted as the episode is not from Jinacaritra.
Fig. 24 Marudevi's omniscience.
245
Kalpa Sutra folio, c. 1600 A.D.
Risabha's mother, Marudevi, grieved by the separation from her son and the contemplation of his sufferings as an ascetic, wept herself blind. When Risabha had come into his samavasarana, his son Bharata went to inform Marudevi and took her on an elephant to see Risabha. At the sight her blindness vanished, washed away with tears of joy. She attained to omniscience on the spot and immediately died, thus achieving salvation, the first person in this avasarpini to do so. Her funeral rites were the first in the world and became a model for the future.
In the painting Risabha is seated at the left in a spired shrine. At the right is Marudevi on an elephant come to worship him, holding an offering in her two hand's. Above the upraised trunk of the elephant is a water pitcher.
Fig. 25 Sthulabhadra as a lion in a cave with his sisters, Sthulabhadra's sisters with Bhadrabahu (or Sthulabhadra).
Kalpa Sutra folio, c. 1500 A.D.
Before conversion Sthulabhadra had lived in Pataliputra for twelve years with a courtesan named Kosa. After his conversion, he once undertook as a penace, during the four months of the rainy season when monks must not wander