Jain Journal 2005 01

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

Page 16

A NOTE ON JAINA ICONOGRAPHY
Satya Ranjan Banerjee
Though the Jains do not believe in the existence of Creatorgod, they consider their Tirthankaras as gods and hence fit for worship. So at a later stage, the Jains thought that the images of the Tirthankaras should be installed in the temples for worship. The Jains further thought that the lives or the important events of the lives of the Tirthankaras should also be engrossed on stones, bronzes or pattas for the future generation who might see and follow the lives of the Tīrthankaras in order to get rid of the cycle of birth, and rebirth. So whether for private or for public worship, the Jains actually nceded images. "Lives of the Jaina Tīrthankaras were probably not intended for biographical treatises, but served a liturgical purpose, for when the images of the Tīrthankaras are worshipped” in private or public temples, they are addressed with hymns manifesting kalyāņakas.
With this idea in the background the Jains started installing the images of Tirthankaras at different places of India. In course of time, “besides the images of the twenty-four Tīrthankaras, the images of other gods and goddesses, though subordinate in type, play a significant role in Jaina Iconography” . So there came sixty-three Salākāpuruṣas 'great men' in the hagiology of the Jains. At a much later time in history the other semigods or class-goddesses also came into existence. There also came into the picture the Yakşas and Yakşiņis, the Sāsana-devatās, the Dikpāțas, the Navagrahas, and the Śrutadevatās and Vidyādeva. Gradually, many Brahmanical divinities were silently assimilated into the Jaina pantheon (cf Gaņeśa, Srī, Kubera and Indra). As a result, the Jaina Iconography became a subject of interest.
The Jain deities are divided into four classes, viz., Jyotisī, Vimānavāsī, Bhavanapati and Vyantara. The Bhavanavāsi devatās 1. D. C. Bhattacharya, Jain Iconography, 2nd edn 1974, p. 13. 2. Bhattacharya, ibid. p. 14