Jain Journal 2006 07

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

Page 15

16
JAIN JOURNAL VOL-XLI, NO. 1 JULY. 2006
from Taxila show this symbol. The Svastika along with the taurine etc., is thus very ancient. The Sathia (Sovatthiya of the the Angas) as it is called in modern Gujarati, is the most important of all the eight auspicious marks of the group. This alone sometimes represents the entire group and is shown as such on the temples, before the images and at the beginning of all auspicious ceremonies. The most comprehensive meaning put to the Svastika and the figures of three dots above surmounted by a crescent and a dot is that the four arms of the Svastika represent the gati or state in which a jiva may be born as either a denizen of hell (naraki) or of heaven (devatā), a man (manusya) or a beast (tiryañc), the three little dots or heaps symbolizing the three jewels of Right Knowledge, Right Faith, and Right conduct, which enable a man to reach Mokṣa represented by the sign of the crescent and the dot above it. The Svastika, it is curious to note, has variegated forms in application in art. There are indications in the figures incised on the group of bricks unearthed from Bhomala, Taxila region, preserved in the Taxila Museum that at least the Svastika is a decorative motif.
The last but not least is the Nandyavarta belonging to the Aṣṭamangala group. The figure is a geometrical device like the Svastika but shows a more developed stage of the art and is clearly of a deeper significance than the former. The adaptation of this device in art and archaeology is very late, at least, far later than the Svastika. It is a double lined figure rectangular in shape and the lines are interwoven, so to say, as to form a nine-coned figure. The Acāradinakara explains the symbol as signifying the fact of the devotee of Jina as recipient of all sacred treasures that remain glowing at his service through the grace of the Lord."9
67. Ibid, p. 153, pl. XX. fig.2, and p. 156, pl. XX. fig. 6.
68. See, pl. Sm. fig. 1.
69.
Cf. tvatsevakānam Jinanatha Dikṣu sarvāsu sarve nidhayaḥ sphuranti
ataścaturdha ṇavakoṇanandyavartaḥ satām vartayatām sukhani.
- Acaradinakara. loc. cit.