Jain Journal 2006 04

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

Page 12

A.K. Bhattacharyya: Studies in Jaina Iconography
יור
vidhinū yo vidhivule nasastadidam ityuktvā pratisthā sthāpanā ca s)". This theory is in perfect accord with the principle of Man-gods in Jainism. For, the highest divinities, the Jainas are emancipated human beings and cannot come down in the inanimate pieces of stones or wood, as is possible in the case of the absolutely divine personages endowed with superhuman powers conceived, for example, in Vişnu, Siva etc., of orthodox Hinduism? This is a fundamental differnce between the two systems which it is necessary to recognise in any study of the iconography of Jain images. The rationalism of Jainism goes so far as to point out that there is nothing of god-head in the sky or the thunderstorm or the lightning as such in the Brahmanical sense of the term but it is the natural or scientific phenomena that are responsible for the activities connected with the above. It is thus because of certain conditions present in the air (amtalikkham) that it rains and not because of any divine powers attributable to it. It is, therefore, a falsehood to say that there is the god of the sky 'the god of the thunderstorm' the god of lightning''the god who begins to rain' and so on, and this a monk or a nun should avoid uttering but one would rather say "the air; the follower of Guhya; a cloud has gathered or come down; the cloud has rained'.8
The image of the Lord represented anthropomorphically is, however, very old in Jain tradition. The reference to a Jina image in
6.
Ibid, ch. I, vv. 84-5.
7.
Cf. Bhuvanapati-Vvantara-Jyotiska-Vaimánikānam tattadadhisthānāt prabhüvasiddhirmurtisu, grhavāpikūpānāli tathaiva siddhānām cărhadādinām pratisthāvidham krte tutpratimăvām prabhāvavyatirekah sanghatate, tatra na tesam mukti padalinānam avatārah kim tu pratisthādevatāpravesad eva samyagdrstisurūdhisthānācca prabhavāh. - Ācāradinakara of Vardhamāna Sūri, p. 141.
8.
Ācārängasutra (Tr. by H. Jacobi, S.B.E. XXII), II. 4.1. p. 152.
An image of the Jaina Tirthankara lielped the awakening to True Knowledge of Seyyambhava Ganadhara as mentioned in a ms. of the Comm. on Dasavaikälika-sutra.