________________
A. K. Bhattacharyya : Studies In Jaina Iconography
87
Pārsvanātha by Ajita, and Mahāvīra by Sreņika. The attendant figures are to the right of the central Jina figures. They are the principal convert kings attached by anecdotes to each of the Tīrthankaras. They represent in some form or the other a counterpart of the concept of Sāsanadevas who are the bearers of the knowledge preached by the Jinas. The notable feature about these royal personages is that they are not inythical figures but have historical existences, and being of a royal descent and status were associated with princely events such as the Saniavasarana or the sacred congregation where sermon is preached in public and before kings and dignitaries|07.
From about the Gupta period, however, the presence of the figures of Sāsanadevas is very much marked in the figures of the Jinas. This goes hand in hand with the growth of a number of simila other figures or motifs like the flanking pair of deer on both sides of the Dharmacakra or the lion-seat, the threefold umbrellas or the aureole etc. A stereotyped form of these in a codified formula is noticeable in the work of Hemacandra about the 12th Cent. A.D.
Then again from the point of view of a study of the icons of other subordinate deities of the pantheon, who were absorbed in the Jain hierarchy of gods, the Jain art was in every respect developed in its elaborate forms not much earlier than the Gupta period. Gods of the Brahmanical Hindu pantheon like Baladeva with a plough and canopy of snake, and Vasudeva Kṛṣṇa with all his attributes have been depicted as subordinated to the main figures of Jinas. This we can notice in a figure of Neminātha from the Kankāli-Tilā Mound of Mathurālos. This belongs to the late Kuşāņa period. The pedestal of the Jaina figures of this and later ages is decorated in this way by other inferior gods generally borrowed from the Hindu pantheon. Then in the late Gupta period we have an abundance of figures of Navagrahas or the Nine planets in rows cut in bold relief in the pedestals of the Jaina figures'09.
107. For a discussion on the symbolism of Samavasarana, see infra 108. See pl. tk. fig. 3 $09. See fig. B. 75 Mathura Musum
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
