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JANUARY, 1975
help us to identify the various Jinas in images or paintings. Rsabhanatha (Adinatha the first Tirthankara) is further identified on account of the hair-locks falling on his shoulders, for while the other Jinas plucked out all the hair, the first Jina, at the special request of Indra, allowed the back-hair (falling on shoulders) to remain, as they looked very beautiful.
Iconography of Rsabhanatha is especially noteworthy. He is called Adinatha and Rsabhanatha, having, as his cognizance, the bull or the Nandi, and also the bull-faced Gomukha as his attendant Yaksa, resembling the conception of Nandikesavara or the Vrsabha (bull, vāhana of Siva). Like Siva, Rsabhanatha is sometimes represented with a big jatā overhead.
Tirthankaras obtained kevala-jñāna (supreme knowledge) while meditating under a tree. Such a tree, called caitya-vrkșa, associated with the kevala-jñāna of each Tirthankara, is mentioned in texts of both the Jaina sects, and in representations, each Tirthankara is shown sitting under a caitya-vşkşa. In iconography, one would, therefore, expect each Tirthankara sitting under the particular tree associated with his kevala-jñāna. But it seems that when the aşta-mahā-pratihāryas common to Tirthankaras were fixed it was the Asoka-tree which came to represent as a cait ya-vrksa over the head of all the Jinas.
Tree-worship, popular in ancient times, noticed in the Vedas, formed an important part of the religious beliefs and practices of the masses with whom Buddha or Mahavira was mainly concerned in his opposition to the Vedic, priestly class and its rituals. The spirits dwelling in the trees were Nagas, Yaksas, Gandharvas, etc., easily approachable without the help of complex sacrificial details. It is the caityas, with udyānas (parks) having caitva-trees in them, that Mahavira is generally reported to have stayed in during his wanderings. People used to sit in worship under such trees and in such moments Buddha and Mahavira obtained elightenment.
Since the Buddha was not represented in human form in early Buddhist worship, the bodhi-tree attained greater importance in Buddhist art, while the Jainas were more or less satisfied with recording of the caitya-trees of different Jinas and giving them only a secondary importance in art. Possibility on account of its age-long existence as an object of worship (not only in India but even amongst other people-cf. for example the tradition of the Christmas-tree), the caitya-tree had to be introduced as a relief sculpture of a Jina, by showing its foliage over
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