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Some Unpublished Jaina Sculptures of
Ganesa from the Western India
Maruti NANDAN PRASAD TIWARI
Ganesa or Ganapati, described as the remover of obstacles and bestower of siddhi, is invoked at the beginning of every auspicious ceremony among both the Hindus and the Jainas from the remote past. According to a Jaina work the Ācāra-dinakara (of Vardhamana Suri, 1412), Ganesa is propitiated even by the gods for obtaining desirable things. The rise of the Ganapatya sect of the Hindus is supposed to be in the Gupta preiod when the elephant-headed and pot-bellied divinity is depicted in art and his statues begin to be carved out.2 The Jainas with a number of other deities also incorporated Ganesa into their pantheon during the early mediaeval period and retained the iconographic features of Hindu Ganesa in regard to his appellation, mount and the distinguishing emblems. The worship of Ganesa among the Jainas began sometime in the eleventh century which is evidenced by the earliest-known sculptures of Ganesa, coming as they do from the eleventh century Jaina Devakulikās at Osia in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan. However, the earliest iconographic reference to Ganesa is found only in a mid-twelfth century work--the Abhidhāna-cintamani (of Hemacandra Suri) but the detailed iconographic features are enunciated in the Acāra-dinakara. It may be said here in passing that the worship of Ganesa was more popular with the Svetambaras, which is attested to by both the concrete representations and the textual references.
The Abhidhāna-cintāmani, referring to the several names of Ganesa, such as Heramba, Gana-vighnesa, Vinayaka, visualizes the elephant headed (with one tusk being broken) and pot-bellied Ganesa as bearing a parašu (axe) and riding a mouse. The Ācāra-dinakara conceives the elephant-headed (with only one tusk being surviving) and pot-bellied Ganesa as possessing 2, 4, 6, 18 or even 108 hands. However, the
2
Acara-dinakara : Ganapati Pratistha : 3, Bombay, 1923, p. 210. Puri, B.N., 'Ganesa and Ganapati Cult in India', Jour. of Indian History, Vol. XLVIII, Pt. II, Aug. 1970, pp. 405-413. Abhidhana-cintamani : Devakanda Second, Verse : 207, Surat, 1946, p. 30.
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