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JAIN JOURNAL : VOL-XLI. NO. I JULY 2006
As regards the number of the symbols in the group, it should be mentioned here that the number of eight of the later ages is not so rigidly constant in early forins. In an Āyāgapata from Mathurā now preserved in the Provincial Museum, Lucknow, referred to above the main auspicious symbols are four in number. These are a svastika at the top and a pair of fish at the bottom while the Srivatsa figures in the right and the Bhadrāsana (?) in the left. The central Jina figure is enclosed within a circle which contains four three-pronged circular figure touching the inner circle of the lotus amidst which the Jina is seated, giving the effect of four nandipadus at the four cardinal points. A circular belt, however, surrounds these four symbols touching the enclosing inner circle. From the same site at Mathurā there is yet another Ayāgapata which in the two rows one at the top and the other at the base shows all the eight classical astamarigalas with a very slight variation. On the upper panel the objects are : a pair of fish, a darpaņa, Srīvatsa, and Vardhamāna Sampuța, while the lower panel has : a nauoipada, a lotus, a bhadrāsana and a purņa-kalasa with lotuses. It is, therefore, interesting that the precise objects as mentioned in the Aupapātika Sūtra are correspondingly represented in Mathurā art of the Kusāņa period.
The Digambara Trilokasāra mentions the eight auspicious symbols which vary in both composition and arrangement. The text written in the 10th cent. A.D., has the objects thus : bhyngāra (a coronation pitcher) kalasa (a vase), darpana (a mirror), vījana (a fan), dhvaja (a flag), camara (a chowrie), ātapatra (an umbrella), and supratişthat. It is further stated that these are to be shown beside a Jina image along with figures of sri-devi, sruta-devī, Sarvälha (or Sarvānha) Yakṣa and Sanatkumāravakşa. 43
The Ācāradinakara of Vardhamāna Sūri records to some extent the significance of these eight kinds of the auspicious marks, some of which, as we shall presently show, were regarded as of great religious
42. Trilokasūra, Vl. 989, cf. bhimgāra-kalasa-dappaņa-viyaņa-dhaya
câmaradavattamahā. savuittha mangalāņi ya attha hiya sayāni patteyam. 43. Ibid, VI. 188
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