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Cognizances On The Images Of Tirthankaras
UMAKANT P. SHAH
Images of the different Tirthankaras are identified with the help of lanchanas or cognizances carved below their seats. Both the Digambara and the Svetambara sects give lists of such recognising symbols. However they are not obtained in any early texts. None of the Agamas (canonical texts), not even the Kalpa Sutra which gives lives of the twenty-four Jinas, nor the Niryuktis, nor the Curnis give a list of these cognizances. Only the Avasyaka Niryukti at one place refers to the fact that Rsabha was so called because he had the sign of a ṛşabha (bull) on his urus (thighs).1 But it gives no lanchanas of other Jinas. And this Niryukti, as available today, is not regarded earlier than the second or the third century A.D. The Vasudevahindi assigned to c. fifth century A.D., which gives lives of several Tirthankaras (e.g. Rsabhanatha, Santinatha, Kunthunatha, Aranatha and others), makes no mention of their cognizances. Amongst the Digambaras, earlier works like the Varangacaritra of Jatasimhanandi (c. sixth cent. A.D.), or the Adipurāṇa and the Uttarapurana of Jinasena (c. 75C-840 A.D.) and his pupil Gunabhadra (c.830 A.D.) respectively or the Padmacarita of Ravisena (676 A.D.) or the Harivamsa of Jinasena (783 A.D.) do not give these lists. The Tiloyapanṇatti does give a list, but the text, as it is available today, seems to have later interpolations as is evident from the fact that it refers to Balacandra Saiddhantika at one place. Hence the evidence of the Tiloyapaṇṇatti is to be treated with caution. The late Prof. A. N. Upadhye, who edited the text arrived at a date, c. sixth century A.D., for the present text.
Under the circumstances, it is necessary to compare the lists of lanchanas given by the two sects. The list appended at the end of this paper will show that the points of difference are with regard to the cognizance of the fourteenth Jina Anantanatha who has the falcon as his lanchana according to Hemacandra, but the bear according to the Digamabaras, regarding that of the tenth Jina Sitalanatha who has the srivatsa lañchana according to Hemacandra but the svastika (Tiloyapannatti) or the śridruma (Pratiṣṭhāsaroddhāra) according to the Digambaras; and regarding the cognizance of Aranatha the eighteenth Jina,
1 Avasyaka Niryukti, gatha, 1080; Vrtti of Haribhadra on Av. Nir., p. 502.
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