Jain Rup Mandan

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

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Jaina-Rupa-Mandana cases where, amongst the Pratimă-sarvatobhadrikā or Caturmukha images from Kankali Tila, Mathura, we find tenon or socket on top or bottom.
The conception of the Samavasaraṇa is not later than the Gupta age since neither the Avaśyaka Niryukti nor the Vasudevahindi referring to it can be assigned to a date later than the fourth and fifth centuries A.D.
The conception of a Caturmukha shrine, evolved from the cult of Caitya-vskșa and the Yakşa cult as shown before, and the allied concept of Caturmukha Pratimă led further to the creation of interesting sculptures and bronzes, as, for example, the Nandiśvara images at Jina-Kånchi or Tiruparuttikupsam illustrated by Ramachandran, op. cit., pl. XXI, fig. 3 and pl. XXXI, fig. 4. Four-sided bronze and stone images having in all 72, 108, or 1008 miniature Jina images were also evolved. A beautiful Caumukha shrine from Guna, Madhya Pradesh, is a gem of its kind. 138
VIII. Tree-Worship
We have already referred to Caitya trces before. Tree-worship, popular from ancient times, noticed on Indus seals and in Vedic and later Brahmanical literature, formed an important aspect of the religious cult of the masses with whom Buddha and Mahāvīra were mainly concerned. The Caitya tree had to be introduced on relief sculpture of a Tirthankara by showing its foliage spread over his head, because of the great popular appeal the Tree had in ancient India. 139 Originally perhaps the Jina image was placed under a Caitya-Tree. The bronze figure of a Caitya-tree obtained in the Chausa hoard (Fig. 17) was perhaps worshipped in such a way with a separate small Jina figure placed near its trunk. Even today the Çaitya-tree of Rşabhanātha (Rayana tree in Gujarati) is held sacred and worshipped on the mountain Satrunjaya.
The earliest reference to the Caitya-tree of Mahāvira is in the Acārānga sūtra, book II which is regarded as later than book I. Though incorporating much earlier material, the Samavāyānga sutra (samavāya 159, p. 152) is obviously a later compilation. It gives a list of Past, Present and Future Tirthankaras and records a list of Caitya-vęksas of all the 24 Tirthankaras of this age in the Bharata kşetra.
Spirits connected with trees are assigned by the Jainas to the class of Vyantara gods. The Vyantaras are subdivided into eight groups, namely, Piśācas, Bhūtas, Yaksas, Raksasas, Kinnaras, Kimpurusas, Mahoragas (Nāgas), and Gandharvas. Each group has on its crest the symbol of a tree in the following order--the kadamba, sulasa, vata, khatvanga, aśoka, näga and tumburu according to the Svetāmbara tradition while the Digambaras substitute the badari tree for the khayvānga. In the Svetämbara list khafvanga alone does not seem to be the name of a tree.
The Sthânănga sutra (10.3, sū. 766) gives a list of trees worshipped by the ten classes of Bhavanavāsi gods. A different list is supplied by the Tiloyapappatti, 4.913ff.
Along with the conception of Caitya trees may be noted the conceptions of the Tree of Life and the Wish-fulfilling Trees (kalpa-druma) in Brahmanical and Buddhist texts. Jaina texts also speak of ten kalpa-drumas, described in detail in the Jambūdvipaprajñapti, 20, pp. 99ff, Harivamsa of Jinasena, I, pp. 146-47, Trişaștiśalākā-puruşacarita (Parva 1, transl. op. cit., pp. 29-30), etc.
REFERENCES
1. For references from Buddhist texts, see Muni Naga
rajaji, Agama aur Tripitaka-Eka Anusílana (Hindi), vol. I, pp. 402ff. Malalasekera, G.P., Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, vol. II (London, 1938), pp. 61-65; Shah, C.J., Jainism in North India (London, 1932), pp. 5-7; Jaini, Padmanabha, The Jaina Path of Purification
(Delhi, 1979), p. 2, n. 3. 2. Varāhamihira in his Brhat-Samhitä refers to the Arhats,
i.e., followers of Arhats. By his time the term Arhat (worthy of veneration) seems to have been used espe
cially for a Jina or a Tirthařkara. 3. As in Amarakośa, cf. : G G:* fecitaffucci: 1 4. A Jina is called an Arhat, cf. Abhayadeva's Comm. on
Sthánānga sutra, p. 191, and Avašyaka Niryukti, gatha 1087; Mülacara, 7.4; Jaini, Padmanabha, op. cit., pp. 1-2 and notes.