Jain Journal 1981 07

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

Page 11

JULY, 1981
Kośa, calls them Arhatam dhvajah. This is also the view of the Digambara writer Pandit Asadhara who says that the herald of the Kastriya family of each Jina became his lanchana.' We know from an Ahicchatra terracotta plaque, published by V. S. Agrawala, showing two Mahabharata heroes fighting, that they had two different emblems (boar and and crescent) on their banners (dhvajas). According to Jaina traditions all the Tirthankaras were born in Ksatriya families. So, the emblems or crests on their banners were regarded as their cognizances which from c. fourth or fifth century onwards begin to appear on the Tirthankara images to fecilitate their identification. This became necessary because all sculptures of the various Tirthankaras are of a set form, standing or sitting, and are not portrait sculptures. In the Kusana period, the cognizances were not carved on images of Tirthankaras and they could be recognised only when their names were mentioned in the inscriptions on their pedestals. It was therefore concluded that the lañchanas were introduced after the Kusana period. But now that we have a simhadhvaja as an object of veneration amongst the Jainas at Mathura during the Kusana period, it is reasonable to presume that in the Kusana age and in at least c. first or second century B.C., there existed dhvaja-emblems on different dhvaja-stambhas for shrines of different Tirthankaras.
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On the Ayagapata dedicated by Sihanadika (no. J. 249, State Museum, Lucknow), discovered from the Kankali Tila, Mathura, we find a seated Jina in the centre, and on the ends of the paṭa, two pillars, one surmounted by the dharma-cakra and the other by an elephant. Elephant is known in Jaina traditions as the lañchana of the second Tirthankara Ajitanatha. Here it is depicted as the dhvaja-emblem of the Jina. On the Ayāgapaṭa set up by Bhadranandi (no. J. 252, State Museum, Lucknow), we similarly find one pillar surmounted by the dharma-cakra and the second pillar surmounted by a lion. The Jina figure in the centre of this Ayagapata must therefore be identified as Mahavira.9
We may therefore conclude that in at least the first or second century B.C., there was also in vogue, amongst the Jainas the practice of erecting
6 cf vrso gajo'svah plavagah kraunco’bjam svastikah sasi makarah srivatsah khadgi mahisah sukarastatha||47 syeno vajram mrgaschago nandyavarto ghato'pi cal kurmo nilotpalam sankhah phani sinho'rhatam dhvajah||48 -Abhi, Cin., 1, 47-48. 7cf vamse jagatpujyatame pratitam prthgvidham tirthakrtam yadatra tallanchanam samvyavaharasiddhyai bimbe jinasyeha nivesayami|| -Pratisthasaroddhara, 4.214, p. 115.
5
8 Studies in Jaina Art, pl. IV., fig. 13. Ibid., pl. III., fig. 10.