Jain Journal 2007 10

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

Page 26

A.K.Bhattacharyya:AStudyofthe Tree of Life andtheAṣtamangalas in Jainism
present as a mystic symbol in almost all the ancient nations of the world. The lines represented in the combination are those of the 'Worker's Hammers' of the Chaldean Book of Numbers. The sparks coming out from the strikes of these Hammers form the nucleus of the worlds themselves. The Jain interpretation of the svastikā as given in the Acaradinakara is but quite simple. According to that text the symbol being only an auspicious mark is to be drawn in front of the Lord as signifying peace and prosperity that reigned on earth on the eve of the birth of the Tirthankara." The discovery of the Svastika in the Jowest stratum at Susa suggests the connecting link between the Sumerian and the other Western Asiatic countries and the Indian or the Arean. This is in fact one of those 'Constituent elements' in Indian art that are not peculiarly Indian but properly speaking, found in common with many of the countries in Western Asia. In the Hathīgumpha caves at Khandagiri this Svastikā symbol has been found to exist as early as the first cent. A.D. Numistratic evidence too points to the same conclusion that along with other symbols like the wheel, taurine etc., the Svastika was used as a Coin mark on the early coinages, from the 2nd. and the 3rd. cent. B.C. An anonymous coin from Kosam11 and another from Avanti and a third from Taxila show this symbol. The Svastika along with the Taurine etc., is thus very ancient. Peculiarly to Jain ideology it has a meaning of its own. The 'Sathia' as it is called in modern Guzrati, is the most important of all the eight auspicious marks of the group. This alone sometimes represents the entire group and is shown as such on the temples, before the images and at the
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38. Compare in this connection the hammers of Viśvakarman of Hindu mythology, who comes nearest to the conception in the Chaldean civilisation. 39. Cf. svastibhūgagananāga vistapeṣuditam Jinavarodayo kṣaṇāt /
svastikam tadanumānato Jinasyagrato budhajanairvitikhyahe // -- Acaradinakara, loc. cit.
40. A.K. Coomarswamy, History of Indian and Indonesian Art. p. 13. 41. V. A. Smith--Catalogue of the coins in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, Vol. I (London) 1909, p. 155, pl. XX, fi. 5.
42. Ibid p. 153, pl. XX. fig. 2, and p. 156 pl. XX fig. 6.