Jain Journal 2006 07

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

Page 14

A.K. Bhattacharyya: Studies in Jaina iconography
: '15
interesting way. According to it, the fish represents the fact of the defeat of Cupid before the Lord. The pair of Fish which represents the cognisance for Cupid on his banner is shown to be serving the Lord in humble submission.
The seventh symbol, the Svastika, in the Aştamangala group has a very wide application in art and is of a very ancient tradition in the history of world thought. The Jain interpretation of the Svastika as given in the Acāradinakura is but quite simple. According to that text the symbol being only an auspicious mark is to be drawn in front of the Lord as signifying peace and prosperity that reigned on earth on the eve of the birth of the Tīrthankara". The discovery of the Svastika in the lowest stratum at Susa suggests the connecting link between the Sumerian and other western Asiatic countries and the Indian or the Aryan. This is in fact one of the constituent elements in Indian art that are not peculiarly Indian but properly speaking, found in common with many of the countries in western Asia." In the Hathigumpha caves at Khaņdagiri hills, this Svastika symbol has been found to exist as early as the Ist century A.D. Numismatic evidence too points to the same conclusion that along with other symbols like the wheel, taurine etc., the Svastika was used as a coin mark on the early coinages from the 2nd and 3rd cent. B.C. An anonymous coin from Kosam " and another from Avanti and a third
62. Cf. tvadvandhya-pancaśarake tanabhāvakliptam kartam mudhā
bhuvananātha nijāparātham/ sevām tanoti puratastava minayugmam sraddhaih puro
vilikhitorunijāngayuktyā./! - Acāradinakara, p. 197. 63. The symbol of Pathyāsvasti' accepted by the Svetāmbaras has been dis
cussed by H.D. Bhattacharyya in K.B. Pathak Com. Vol. p. 40. See, also,
Kausitaki Brāhmaṇa, VII. 6 etc. 64. Cf. svastibhūgaganānāgaviştapeşūditam Jinavarodaye kşaņāt/ svastikam tadanumānato Jinasyāgrato budhajanairvilikhyatell
- Ācāradinakara, loc. cit. 65. A.K. Coomaraswamy: History of Indian and Indonesian Arl, p. 13. 66. V.A. Smith: Catalogue of the Coins in the Indian Museum, Cal, (London
1906), Vol. I, p. 155, pl. XX. fig. 5.