Jain Journal 2006 07

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

Page 18

A.K. Bhattacharyya: Studies in Jaina Iconography
caru-kakuhaṁ). The horns are circular, smooth and elevated (ghanavatta-lattha) and his teeth are harmless and clean (sohaṁta-suddhadamtam)."
77
The third in order is the lion that Triśalā is represented to have seen on the eve of Mahāvīra's birth. The figure of lion that we meet with in ms. illustrations of the 14-16 cents. A.D. both on palm-leaf and paper calls for some special remarks. The lion is generally of a blue colour with a very thin belly. The manes of the Lion are very. seldom made vissibly prominent, and the tail generally coiled up. The Kalpasutra has it that the Lion is to be of a 'dazzling white coulour', strong, muscular and fat with his members all properly rounded in the most elegant way. He is to have a sharp well-formed jaw, a mouth beautiful as the periphery of a lotus, a fine mascular lip, with a palate like the red water-lily. His teeth are said to be rounded being well-developed and are thick-set and fierce,; while the tip of his tongue is hanging out of his mouth like fine gold being poured out of a crucible (cf. ratt'-uppala-patta-mauya-sukumāla-tālu-nill- oliy agga-jiham). His shoulders are said to be adorned with a soft and bright long-haired mane while the tail is raised aloft with a circle in the centre bounding like a ball (cf. usiya-sunimmiya-sujaya-apphodiyalamgulam). The lion, it must be noted, is the cognisance of the last Tirthankara. This cognisance is also associated with some of the Yakṣas and Yakṣiņīs e.g., Mānavi or Śrīvatsā, the Śāsanadevi of the 11th Jina Śreyamsanātha, Ambikā, the Sasanadevi of the 22nd Jina Neminatha and lastly, Siddhayikā, the Yakşiņi of the last Tirthankara Mahāvīra.
78
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The next dream auspicious for the birth of a Tirthankara that a pregnant woman sees is that of Śrī Lakṣmīdevi. In some of the canonical literature of the Jains, however, the term used for the symbol is simiply Abhiseya', which means "sprinkling"" or anointment. This
77. Kalpasutra, op. cit. p. 43, para 34.
78.
Ibid. loc. cit.
79. Antagadadasasutra (ed. by L.D. Barnett), p. 24.