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156
Jaina-Rupa-Mandana figures and also the decorative designs are all skilfully done. The pedestal and/or the simhāsana seems to have been lost. The bronze is preserved in the V. and A. Museum, London.
In cell 15, Vimala Vasahi, Abu was an image of Santinātha installed in v.s. 1131 (inscription no. 74 of Muni Jayantavijaya). Only the pedestal remained showing the inscription, and a four-armed yaksa carrying the goad and the noose in the right and the left upper hands and the citron and the bag in the corresponding lower ones. The elephant is shown as his vahana. The yakşi is a figure of four-armed Ambika with the lion vehicle and the child held on the lap with the left lower hand; her three remaining hands carry the amralumbi (bunch of mangoes). Cell 24 (inscription no. 98 of Jayantavijaya), Vimala Vasahi has a sculpture of Santinātha installed in v.s. 1245 by Mahāmātya Dhanapāla the son of Mahämātya Pţthvipala. The yakşi is four-armed Ambiká showing the same symbols as described above and the four-armed yaksa Sarvānubhūti showing the varada and the money-bag in his right and left lower hands and the goad and the noose in the corresponding upper ones. There is an image of Santinātha installed (by the right side of the main image) in cell 35, Vimala Vasahi, Abu, in v.s. 1288. In cell 47 was installed in samvat 1378 an image of Sāntinātha (inscription no. 157 of Muni Jayantavijaya).
In Cell 5 of the animalia emple, Kumbharia, was installed in samvat 1138 a sculpture of Santinātha (Višalavijaya, op. cit., p. 141). A brass image of Sāntinātha in padmāsana dhyāna mudrā is preserved in the Sambhavanātha temple, Cambay, Gujarat. The whole parikara and the deer cognizance are shown. It may be noted that the male câmaradhara on each side carries a pitcher with his other hand. The image was installed in samvat 1586 according to the inscription on its back. The Bharata Kala Bhavana, Varanasi, has a Covisi metal sculpture of Santinātha installed in 1510 A.D. The image hails from Gujarat or Rajasthan. There are numerous images in stone and metal as also several temples of Santinātha all over Gujarat and Rajasthan, amongst the Svetāmbaras as well as the Digambaras.
Around A.D. 1192, a fine Jinālaya of the god Abhinava Santināthadeva, called Nagarajinālaya, was erected by some business magnates at Dorasamudra, the capital of Hoyasala kings in Karnataka.202 In A.D. 1154, Pārsvasena Bhatțăraka repaired the ruined Basti of Santinātha at Holakere.203 Earlier still, Rāstrakūta king Khottiga Nityavarşa, who came to the throne in A.D. 968, had, according to a record found in a ruined temple at Danavulapadu, Cuddapah district, caused a pedestal to be made for the bathing ceremony of the god Santinátha,204 General Recarasa set up in the year 1200 A.D. the god Santinātha at Sravana Belagola and made over the Basadi to his guru Sågaranandi Siddhantadeva.205 There was a Santinātha Basadi at Belur also.206
At Sravaņa Belagola, Mūļabidure and Venur in the sets of 24 Tirthankara images we obtain images of Santinătha also.
In the ceilings of the Santinātha and Mahāvira temples at Kumbharia and in a ceiling in front of Cell no. 12 at Vimala Vasahi, Abu, we find scenes of not only the five main events of the life of Sāntinātha (panca kalyānakas) but also scenes from some of the noteworthy previous existences of this Jina 207 Santinátha was a Cakravarti ruler before he became a monk and a Tirthaikara. So amongst such scenes we also find the different ratnas of a Cakravarti emperor. In one of his previous births as king Megharatha, the soul of Santinātha offers his whole flesh to a falcon in order to save the life of a dove who sought refuge with Megharatha. This is a famous ancient theme popular in the Brahmanical as well as the Buddhist and the Jaina literatures. In Brahmanical legend king Sibi protects the dove by offering his whole body to be weighed in balance against the body of the dove. In all the scenes from the life of Santinātha both at Kumbharia and at Vimala Vasahi we do find this scene of king Megharatha weighing his body in the balance. Two long wooden book-covers of a palm-leaf manuscript, painted with a series of scenes from the previous existences and the last existence of Santinātha, are preserved in Dehlānā Upasraya no bhändara, Ahmedabad. The paintings covering all the four sides of these two long pastikās were done in Jalor in Marvad (south western Rajasthan) in the thirteenth century of the Vikrama era,208 in c. 1260 A.D. The scenes include this incident of Megharatha offering his whole body to save the life of the dove.
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