________________
78
JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XLI, NO. 2 OCTOBER. 2646
by anything better. We know in Hindu Mytholoty and in Hindu art Visnu has a conspicuous feature in the Vanamālā. The Puranas in trying to explain its significance says that the mālā or the garland represents the spirit of the Mother-goddesso. The garland that Trisalā is said to have seen in her dream is described as "coming down from the firinament' and spreading the delicious smell of a number of flowers like campaka, (michelia campaka), asoka (jonesia asoka), etc.. It is said to be white through wreaths of fragrant flowers of all seasons' and brilliant with embellishments of many colours' (bahuvanna-bhatticittam)".
The Moon and the Sun which are next to be seen are represented not anthropomorphically although the beginning of the human ideology can be noticed, for, the Sun is given the figure of a human face. This mode of representing the Moon and the Sun in the forın as they appear to our eye continued in the same manner up to a very late period, even up to the 17th and 18th cents. A.D. These two planets when in the group of Nine Planets (Navagraha) have a complete form in human analogy and they are sometimes shown along with their vāhanas and āyudhaso?. It is interesting to note that certain geometrical figures are adopted in Jain rituals to represent the mandalas of the Nine Planets. This tradition, as Muni Sakalachandra Gani in his Pratisthākalpa-prārambha says, is traceable to Bhadrabāhu himself". The Moon according to this tradition is to be represented like a crescent within a mandala which is rectangular in shape. The Yantra for the Sun is, as is quite natural, a circular one. The Dhyāna for the SunGod has it that Sūrya is nothing but Nārāyaṇa conceived as the central
90. Varuha-Purāna (Ed. P. Tarkaratna), ch. 31, vv. 16, of. - Mälevam Bhūtamātā
te kanthe tisthatu sarvadā. 91. Kalpasūtra ( Tr. by F. Max Muller), p. 234. 92.
See, pl. XCI, fig. 270, Jainacitrakalpadruma. For a full discussion of the iconography of these two planets along with others vide chapter on
Navagraha. 93. 'Sakalachandra Gani : Pratișthākalpa-prārambha, p.47.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
