Jain Journal 1980 04

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

Page 54

APRIL, 1980
article. On page 152 of this paper a literary reference has been quoted from the Jaina Svetambara text Rāyapasenaijja, which connects a woman with the Asoka-tree as salabhanjika! On pages 156-158 (specially see Note 24) of my article I have pointed out that also in the Buddhist sphere the birth of the future Buddha is not always necessarily connected with the Sala-tree and that in the Mahävastu and in the Lalitavistara the Plaksa-tree is mentioned instead. This shows that we cannot draw any conclusions on that ground.
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We have noted that Pisharoti sees a latavestika type of alinganadohada in the Bharhut image inscribed as Canda Yaksi.
It may be tempting to think of the possibility that here a dohada motif may also be indicated in view of the Bharhut figures under flowery trees and with the Meghaduta passage on dohada in mind. Did the craftsmen intend to underline the magic power of these deities by showing their dohada performance which causes the tree to put forth blossoms ? There is one difficulty to answer this question in the full affirmative. The woman and tree representations on the Bharhut railings are depicted with their right arms raised (some smaller representations raise their left arms) bending down the branch of a tree, an act which is expressed by the term salabhanjiya, determined in this article as 'carving of a female bending down the branch of a tree'. Pisharoti has given a valuable list of dohada references on pages 119-124 of his article. There is no mention of a lady who raises her arm to seize the branch of a tree while performing dohada. On the other hand there is not one salabhanjika passage quoted by Vogel and not one added by me from Jaina Prakrit sources and Sanskrit Silpasastras which has dohada in context. This rather suggests to see different things in salabhanjika and dohada with different meanings underlying them. The only thing in common is the tree with which both are evoked. In the case of the salabhanjika pose the tree appears to be the giver, fertilizing and occasionally even decorating a woman. C. Sivaramamurti published an interesting piece of Amaravati sculpture depicting a lady in salabhanjika pose under a kalpa-vrksa---- desire-granting tree receiving ornaments from it (op. cit., Pl. LXI, Fig. 2) which he rightly connects with Meghadüta II,12. Dohada represents just the opposite : fertilization given to a tree by the touch of a woman. Cf. Mallinatha's remark on dohada in Megh, II, 18: dohadam vrksadinam prasava karanam samskara dravyam. Pisharoti remarks: "The dohada rite, however, performed for the sake of the tree, is not a fertility rite, but one of fertilization, so that the tree may have flowers in abundance.' (op. cit., p. 119, Note 1) The explanation for salabhanjiya, a woman who seizes the branch of a tree with her hand, obtained from Ray., enables