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A. K. Bhattacharyya: Studies In Jaina Iconography
figures on each side flanking the jar and the conch with the interspaces between the see filled with standing female figures certainly afford material for study of early symbolism in Jainism with relation to both Hindu and Buddha symbology. That the Pūrṇa-kalasa motif together with the conch was a favourite one singnifying full success and alertness respectively in early Kuṣāņa period, we have no reason to doubt. With regard to this particular Ayāgapaṭa and the antiquity of its auspicious motif we may remark, in passim, that the style of the dress worn by the figures of the ladies on the square space point to the period of the Scytho-Parthian influence in the north-western frontier of India.
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It is also interesting to point out that the pre-Kuṣāṇa Ayāgapaṭas or tablets of homege had the figures of Jinas incised on them. It is also significant to note in this connection that the Jina figures in the Ayagapatas had no emblems or lanchanas on them. The Jaina types of seated figures in these and similar other representations of Kuṣāņa and pre-Kuṣāņa age had their proto-types in Buddha figures, but a paleographic study reveals that the Jaina figures on Ayagapatas are certainly older than the dateable Buddha images. And indeed there are plausible reasons for that. The Jains given to details of Pūjā and daily worship were more prone to an iconolatrous attitude than the Buddhists with more resignigng attitude towards life. The Jains as a result found out a more tangible form of the Lord to offer their worship to than the Buddhists would. The latter were further more moved by stronger considerations resulting in a total aversion for all earthly forms of the Lord. This shows, if anything, that in the first stage of iconic developments, the Jina figures had no lañchanas or distinctive marks except for the figure of Pārsvanatha who had a serpent canopy as his cognisance. The marks or emblems on the figures of Jinas are conspicuous by their absence. Even the aṣṭamāngalika figures as shown on the tablet have reached at the period a very little progress in their evolution. The most important feature, however, in these figures of Jinas of the pre-Kuşan or Kuṣāṇa period is the presence of a Pharma-Cakra flanked by a pair of antelopes. It is only at a later stage, it seems, that each Tirthankara figure came to be marked out
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