Jain Journal 1984 04

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

Page 21

APRIL, 1984
sculptures found from different parts of Bengal may be classified under three distinct types: (a) the sculptures showing single Tirthankaras as the chief object of display with various accessory figures by the sides of the principal figures, (b) caumukha shrines with four figures shown on four sides, (c) tablets showing two figures of Tirthankaras side by side.
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The earliest Jaina figure noticed in Bengal, an image of Rsabhanatha, the first of the twentyfour Tirthankaras, was found from a place called Surohar near Rajshahi and is now in the collection of the Varendra Research Society Museum, Rajshahi. Upon a large stela the perfectly poised image of the Tirthankara sits cross legged in the dhyāna pose on a simhasana with hands resting upon the soles of his feet. Completely nude, he wears the urṇā, uṣṇiṣa and wheel marks upon the palm and soles of his feet, the well known mahāpuruşa lakṣaṇas equally shared by the Buddhists and the Jainas for representation upon the figures of the Buddha and Tirthankaras. The style of sitting and other accourtrements are strongly reminiscent of the seated Jaina figures from Mathura, a pose not very commonly met with in case of the numerous Tirthankara figures. Even the fly whisk bearing figures shown on two sides of the seated Tirthankara and the flying Gandharvas on two sides of the prabhamandala speak of the influence of Mathura style. The usual pose most universally favoured for the display of the Tirthankaras is the kayotsarga pose, a pose peculiar to and distinctive of the Jaina Tirthankaras alone. While to the pose of the seated yogi had its prototype in the famous so called Siva Pasupati seals found from the Harappan sites, some scholars have noticed the archetype of the käyotsarga pose in the standing nude statuette found from Harappa. A bronze figure of Parsvanatha now in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay showing close similarities to the Harappan statuette and having physiognomical characteristics traced from primitive traditions probably indicate a truly ancient origin of the pose while a torso found from Lohanipur in Patna and belonging to about the 1st century A.D. confirms this suggestion. The state of inaction and inward concentration both in seated as well as in the standing pose have been cultivated as means of meditation probably from Pre-Buddhist and PreJaina age. In art, however, different creeds tried to evolve different modes in order to realise the state of meditation in order to stress upon the distinctiveness of their respective ways of thinking. Thus the Buddhists in order to show the way of meditation preferred the seated pose while the Jainas opted chiefly for the standing kayotsarga pose. But it is apparent that there had been little difference in the totality of their respective outcome. Both were intended for the realization of the ultimate end, the deliverance from the pains of existence and the attainment of the final bliss of an eternal and ever sustaining nature.