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JAIN JOURNAL VOL-XLI, NO. 2 OCTOBER. 2006
In our study of the symbolism of the Jaina art we come across many figures like the depiction of the dream scene of the Jina mothers just in the same way as we find the Dream scene of Maya depicted in the Buddhist. All the major incidents of the life of a Jina are again the subject of a series of sculpture representations in Jaina art. Man has been the subject of a grand worship in Jainism which surpasses any other form of religious art in India or elsewhere. What constitutes a bulk of Jain art so far at least as the earlier phase of it is concerned in a mass of representations centering round the worship of man-Gods that form the highest objects of worship in Jainism. Indeed this is the most striking and unique feature in Jaina art, and as a result this feature is responsible for the more realistic elements in it. In spite of the borrowings from the Brahmanical ideology, the Jaina art stands out conspicuous by virtue of the presence of these elements. The figures of the gods and goddesses are to appear more human than supernaturally divine. The facial expression to start with, is to be more human than divine. The attributes given to the gods and goddesses are more human than godly. The usual and more common posture of sitting of the gods not only of the highest divinities but even of a good number of those of the lower rank is that of a Yogi of India having nothing supernatural or ideal in it. Except for the variety of weapons in the hands of the gods and goddesses which are clearly traces of a borrowing from the Brahmanical and in some cases exclusively. Buddhist as again, in some others, independent growth in Jainism itself out of causes solely peculiar to that form of the sect, everything in Jaina art and Iconography has clear indication of a tendency towards realistic or rather humanistic surge through its veins. As an instance of these, one may point out that the congisances although a very late device for establishing the identity of the different Tirthankaras grew out of a consideration of the race from which the particular Tirthankara had sprung. Thus, for instance, the Ikṣvāku family had the bull as the royal insignia and consequently we find the bull emblem as the lanchana of Risabhanatha who is affiliated to the Ikṣvāku race. In a similar manner, Munisuvrata and Neminatha had respectively the symbols of tortoise and conch for these are the royal insignia, so to say, of the family of Hari from which these two Tirthankaras are said to descend.
An important branch of Jaina Art is furnished by the dedicatory sculptures devoted to the departed saints of the Jains. The Kirti Stambhas are by themselves a group of artistic preductions which
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