Jain Rup Mandan

Author(s): Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Abhinav Publications

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Introduction a Stupa and a Temple called Simhanişady.i-ayatana, one yojana in area and three gavyutis in height and installed therein life-size images of the twenty-four Jinas, as also images of the hundred sons of Rsabha including himself and in order to protect these from violation by others, he placed as gatekeepers mechanical figures made of iron (lohamayan yantrapurusan).76 This he did on the Mt. Aştāpada, identified in Jaina traditions with the Mt. Kailasa, which is the site of Rşabha's Nirvana. This tradition of Bharata erecting the first Jaina shrine is also found in the Avaśyaka-cürni and in the Mala-Bhäşya gäthả based on the above Niryukti gatha. The same belief is expressed in the Vasudevahindi in its account of Rsabha's Nirvana and the mount Astăpada.77
Jaina canonical literature shows the existence of the worship of (1) Bones of Tirth ankaras, ashes or relics, (2) Caitya-trees and Caitya-Stūpas, (3) Caityas or images, e.g. the Saśvata-Jina-Pratimas, (4) Stambhas or Pillars and Symbols like the Silapatas.
The existence of several Caityas in the different places visited by Mahāvira is noteworthy. For example, there was Kosthaka Caitya at Srāvasti, Candrāvatarana Caitya at Kauśämbi, Purnabhadra Caitya at Campā, Gunaśila-Caitya at Rajagsha, Bahuputrika-Caitya at Viśālā, and so on. Commentators explain these Caityas as Yakṣāyatanas. Besides, we hear of temples of Sulapāni Yakşa, Surapriya Yakşa and so on. These suggest the existence even in the age of Mahāvira of image-worship amongst followers of the Yakşa Cult, and amongst the Indian masses, for, the Jaina Agamas speak of ladies propitiating such deities for obtaining children. Also, the Agamas speak of festivals and worship of Indra, Rudra, Skanda, Vaiśramana, Näga, Yakşa, Bhūta, Vasudeva and others. A temple of Skanda is said to have existed at Sivatthi in the time of Mahavira according to the Avaśyaka Niryukti. Thus, according to the Jaina evidence, image worship was already popular amongst the Indian masses in the age of Mahävira. The Purņabhabra shrine visited by Mahavira was ancient (porāne) even when Mahavira visited it. Of course the Aupapatika sutra makes no mention of the image of Purnabhadra yaksa. A sort of hero-worship could be casily introduced even though there is no Creator-God according to Jaina Doctrine. Bhakti predominated amongst the masses who worshipped the Yaksas, Nagas, Bhūtas, Indra, Rudra, Skanda, Vaisramana, Våsudeva and even Trees, Tanks, etc. Representation of the Jina figure was never spoken of as an act of sacrilege and was not disliked as was done by the Buddha regarding worship of the Buddha-image and hence the Jina-image-worship seems to have started early, at least during the Mauryan age. We have referred to the Kalinga-Jina image carried off by the Nanda king and brought back by Kharavela. T.N. Ramachandran has identified a frieze on the Mañcapuri Cave, Udayagiri, Orissa, as a representation of worship of the Jina image, the frieze is assignable to first century B.C. The existence of a Jaina shrine (pasāda), as early as the middle of the second century B.C., at Mathura, is proved by an inscription recording the dedication of a pasada-torana by a śravaka named Uttaradasaka.774 In the inscription on the Ayāgapața donated by Vásu, the words used for a Jaina shrine are Devakula and Nirgrantha-Arhatayatuna.
'The Jaina account of the cremation of a Tirthankara and the consequent collection of bone relics by Indra and other gods, including erection of the stūpas on the cremation site by the gods, given in the Jambudvipaprajñapti78 is noteworthy since it gives us an insight into contemporary methods of cremation and because it obtains an interesting parallel with cremation in Buddhist accounts.
Detailed descriptions of a Jaina stūpa are not traced in the Jaina accounts but the conception of a Samavasaraņa bronze or a stone sculpture showing the three ramparts of a Samavasaraņa vertically is reminiscent of the conceptions of a Jaina stupa. This will be obvious on a camparison of fig. 182 with figs. 10A and 21 in this book as also figs. 14B and 76 in the Studies in Jaina Art. It seems that the popularity of representations of the Samavasara na ultimately replaced the Stupa symbolism in Jaina worship.
The pedestal of a Jina image said to refer to Arhat Nandyāvarta (but referring to Munisuvrata according to K.D. Bajpai's corrected reading) obtained from Kankali Tila, Mathura, was installed in the so called Vodva stupa which is said to be Devanirmita79 according to the inscription on it dated in the year 49 or 79. Due to a slight mistake in separating the words of the inscription inscribed in a line, the stūpa was called Vodva Stupa by scholars. Lüders in his unpublished revised readings and notes had corrected the