Jain Journal 2006 04

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

Page 18

In Brāhmanism a stands for Vişņu,u for Siva and m for Brahmās. The Buddhist triratna in many of its varieties is available from the Buddhist sites of Taxila and round about from the early times of the Kūşāņa.
A consideration of the piece of sculpture from Kankāli tilā, Mathurā, referred to above leads us most consistently to an estimation of the place of the Cakra as the symbol for the Law which found conspicuous favour with early as well as medieval Buddhism. Cakra as the symbol or rupa of Vaişņava iconography begins from its intimate association with Lord Vişnu Himself. The oldest of the punch-marked coins dating from about the 7th cent. B.C. bearing the Cakra mark are clear proof of the ancient character of the tradition. The Cakra as associated with tri-ratna, symbols is not peculiarly Jain. It is also found in the Taxila art of the Kuşāņa age where it is undoubtedly Buddhistic. It is there represented symbolically in association with the trident or the tri-ratna symbol. The Buddha's head touches the wheel of Law which is placed on the triratna symbol flanked on two sides by a deer each, depicting the preaching of the first sermon, at the Deer Park. In late periods probably such symbols came to transgress their limits of narrow sectarianism. For the Jain writer Thakkura Ferū mentions that Chakreśvarī's psrikara is not complete
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In Jainism, however, the Om does not consist of the three syllables but rather of five a-a-s (ora) - u-m.
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C.II., Vol. II, pt. I; A. S. In, Annual Report 1916-17.
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The triratna in Jainism, it must be stated, consists of jñāna, darśana and cūritra, and probably it was jñana or knowledge par excellence, the knowledge of the scriptures including, that is the Dharma in assence. The cakru in art represents this jñāna. Cap., fig. 71, pl. XIX, Histort of Indian and Indonesian Art by A.K. Coomaraswamy, also, Neg. No. 984, A.S.I. 1937-38.
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