Jain Journal 2007 10

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 19

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JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XLII, NO.2 OCTOBER 2007
of the place of the Cakra as the symbol for the Law which found conspicuous favour with early as well as medieval Buddhism. Cakra as the symbol or Rūpa of the Vaisnava iconography beginning from that of the Lord Vişnu Himself is as early a tradition as to be traced in the very oldest of the Punchmarked coins dating from the 7th century B.C. The Cakra associated with the triratna symbols!" is not peculiarly Jain. It is also found in the Taxila art of the far pre-Christian era where it is undoubtedly Buddhistic. It is there represented symbolically in association with the Trident or Tri-ratna symbols. The Buddha's hand touches the wheel of Law which is placed on the tri-ratna symbol flanked on two sides by a deer each depicting the preaching of the first Serinon at the DEER Park. In late period probably such symbols came to transgress their limits of narrow sectarianism. For the Jaina writer Thakur Feru mentions that goddess Cakreśvarī's parikara is not complete without a Dharmacakra flanked by stags being shown on the front face of the pedestals."18 Attention may also be drawn to the Cakra-ratna which is attributed to a cakravartin as his symbol as well as weapon. The representation of the Cakra in Jaina art can be traced as early as the first few centuries near the beginning of the Christian era. The votive tablets, the Āyāgapatas, belonging to the Kuşāņa period and unearthed from the Kankālī Tīlā at Mathurā contain the figure of Cakra and the elephant placed on two figures placed on two pillars of the Persepolitan type on either side of a seated Jina at the centre.20
16. The Triratna in Jainism, it must be stated, consists of Jnāna, Darsana and
Cäritra, and probably it was Jnana or knowledge par excellence, the knowledge of the scriptures not excluded that is the Dharma in essence. The
Cakru in art represents this Jňāna. 17. Arch Survey of India, Ann. Report for 1937-38 Fig No. 984. 18. Cf. Cakkadharī garudankā Tassāhe dhammacakka ubnaydisam
hariņajuam ramaniyam gaddiyamajjhammi Jinaciņham" -- Il 28-- Vatthusārupayaranani (Ed. by B. Jain). Here the symbol of dharmacukra is to be placed on the pedestal at its centre. The Parikara is not complete without it. The goddess Cakreśvari primarily a sāsanadevi of the first Jina is also
attributed here with the Cakra symbol in her upper two hands (Cakkadhari). 19. Vide, Jinacitra-kalpadruma, pl. XCVI, fig. 278. 20. A.K. Coomaraswamy--History of Indian and Indonesian Art. p. 37. pl. XIX
figs. 71 & 72.