Jain Journal 2006 04

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

Page 17

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as most probably the Kuşana period, was one that formed one of the fundamental principles in an-iconic religious attitude of the Jains. Attention may in this connection be drawn to a find from the Kankali Tilā at Mathura32. On the front of the pedestal of this image of a Jina is the figure of a wheel placed on a trident carved in relief, being worshipped by a group of monks (?). This indeed bears a close relationship with the Buddhist art of representing the Wheel or the Dharmacakra which in early sculpture was a substitute for the Lord Himself. Indeed, to quote Bühler, the early art of the Jains did not differ materially from that of the Buddhists. Indeed, art was never communal. Both sects used the same ornaments, the same artistic motives and the same sacred symbols, differences occurring chiefly in minor points only. The cause of this agreement is in all probability not that adherents of one sect imitated those of the other, but that both drew on the unusual art of India and employed the same artists.33 The trinatna symbol in Jainism represents the three-fold character of perfects, viz., knowledge, faith and conduct. This idea of a triad which in Buddhism took the form of three jewels, viz., Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha was represented sometimes by the trigonal figures or trikons which according to Beal was used to denote 'the embodied form of the Tathāgata', or sometimes by the triliteral syllable a-u-m.34
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JAIN JOURNAL VOL-XL. NO. 4 APRIL. 2006
J. Ph. Vogel - Cat. of the Arch. Museum at Mathura - p. 67, Image no. B. 5. See also pl. Tk. fig 1, whese Cakra (Dharma-Cakra) placed on a pillar in the centre of the pedestal is worshipped by a group of devotees. The sculpture refers spell to the year 84, during the reign of Mahārāja rājātirāja Devaputra Shahi Vasudeva, the Kuṣāna king.
Epigraphia Indica, II. p. 322; cf also, the Origin and Growth of Religion: Hopking.
For a fuller discussion on these symbols, vide, A. Getty: Gods of Northern Buddhism. p. 197 ff.