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Iconography of 24 Tirtharkaras
147 Hemacandra's two explanations of the name are far-fetched as almost all others for different Jinas are. He has somehow tried to connect Sreyāmsa with śreyas (spiritual good or merit).143
The Jina obtained kevalajñāna while meditating under a Tumbura tree (Uttarapurāņa) or Palāśa tree (Tiloyapannatti). According to Hemacandra it was the Asoka tree. T.N. Ramachandran's Table gives Tanduka as the Caitya tree. The Samavāyānga sūtra reads it as Tinduga.
The cognizance of Sreyamsa is Rhinoceros (khadgi, gandah) according to both the sects. Ramachandran has noted three different traditions about this Jina's cognizance: (1) Rhinoceros, (2) Deer, (3) Garuda. The last two alternatives seem to have been based on some Kannada traditions.
The Jina was followed by a band of 77 gañadharas with Kunthủ as their leader according to the Uttarapurana, but Dharma according to Tiloyapannatti, Gostubha according to Samaväyänga sutra and Kaśyapa according to others. Dharanã (Dig.) or Cāraņā (TP) or Dharini (Sve.) was the head of the order of aryikās of this Jina. Sreyamsa obtained nirvana on Mt. Sammeta.
Isvara and Gauri are his yaksa and yakşiņi respectively according to the Digambara traditions (except the Tiloyapannatti which gives Kumāra and Mahākāli) while the Svetāmbaras invoke them as Yakşet and Mānavi.
Triprstha, the first Vasudeva and Vijaya, the first Baladeva, of Jaina Puranas, lived in this age. According to Jinaprabha sūri, Tirthas (places of pilgrimage) of Sreyamsa existed on the Vindhya-giri and Malaya-giri.
A. Bannerji has noticed an image of Sreyāmsa in kāyotsarga mudrā at Pakbira (Purulia), W. Bengal.144 There is an image of Sreyāmsa in the Indore Museum, M.P.
Sculptures of Sreyāmsa are found in caves 8 and 9 at Khandagiri, Orissa. 145
B.C. Bhattacharya writes, "At Sarnath, in Benares, the traditional place of the Jina, there is a Jaina temple dedicated to this patriarch. An old image of the same Jina may be seen in the Brahmanical sculpture shed attached to the Museum." According to him the image is no. C.62 in the Museum.146 In the Nagpur Museum is a sculpture from Cedi area, Madhya Pradesh, assignable to c. 10th-11th cent. A.D., which has on the pedestal a figure of the cognizance looking like a rhinoceros. It has been published as representing Sreyamsa in the second edition of B.C. Bhattacharya's Jaina Iconography (plate XVI).
In the Provincial Museum, Lucknow, no. J.856 is a Pañca-tirthí sculpture of this Jina from SahetMahet (ancient Srāvasti), district Gonda, U.P. Below the dharmacakra in the centre of the simhāsana is the figure of rhinoceros, the cognizance of Sreyāmsanātha. It may be noted that the Jina has hair-locks on his shoulders which is unwarranted.
No. 8 in the Shivpuri Museum, M.P. is a sculpture of Sreyamsa standing on a simhāsana in the centre of which in a niche is a small figure of an ācārya with his right hand in the vyakhyāna mudra. He is sitting in padmasana and the figure could also represent the Jina giving the sermon. Below the seat of this figure is the dharmacakra below which at the lowermost end of the pedestal is the figure of the cognizance of Sreyamsa. The sculpture came from Narwar, M.P.
In the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, is a Pañcatirthi brass image of Sreyamsa dated samvat 1525 according to an inscription on its back. In Cell no. 11, Pärsvanātha temple, Kumbharia, is the pedestal of a sculpture of this Jina. Inscription on the pedestal shows that the image of Śreyāmsa was installed in samvat 1202.147 Muni Viśālavijaya (op. cit., p. 56) refers to an image of Sreyāmsa installed in samvat 1138, in the Santinātha temple, Kumbharia.
A Panca-tirthi brass image installed in samvat 1569 is in worship in the Kharatara vasahi temple at Satruñjaya (Kanchanasagara sūri, op. cit., inscr. no. 433).
Sculptures of Sreyamsa are also found in the sets of 24 Tirthankaras at Sravana Belagola, Venur and Mudabidri. In each case the Jina is accompanied by his yaksa and yaksiņi.
12. TWELFTH TIRTHANKARA: VĀSUPOJYA
King Vasupujya and queen Jayā (Sve.) or Vijayā (Dig.) had a prince named Väsupujya who became the twelfth Jina. Reddish in complexion, Vasupujya was born in the Satabhişa naksatra, having descended
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