Jain Rup Mandan

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

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Jaina-Rupa-Mandana garment on the person of Mahāvira. Being a life-time portrait statue it was known as Jivanta-svāmi-pratima, that is, the "Image fashioned during the life-time of the Lord". All later images of this iconographic type then came to be known as Jivantasyämi pratimas.
The original portrait statue was worshipped by the queen of Uddāyana, the king of Vitabhaya-Pattana (Roruka ?) in the Sindhu-Sauvira region.
The earliest available reference to an image of Jivantasvāmi is from the Vasudevahindi of Vācaka Samghadāsa gani who took the Bphat-kathā of Guņādhya as the model or prototype for his Jaina version of such stories. A critical study of the subject matter and the language of the work has led scholars to conclude that it is a work of c. early fifth century A.D. or a little earlier. In this work, a certain lady, Vāsavadattā by name, seeks company of a caravan going to the city of Ujjain. In this caravan was also travelling a certain Jaina nun, followed by a retinue of female pupils, with the object of paying respects to Jivantasāmi (Jivantasvämi) (image at Ujjain).
Kşamāśramaņa Samghadāsa, a somewhat later writer, of c. 6th cent. A.D., composed his Bhāșya on the Bphat-Kalpa-sútra and its N ti wherein he refers to the visit to Ujjain by Arya Suhasti and the conversion by him to Jaina Faith of emperor Samprati, the grandson of Asoka. The Niryukti and Bhāşya verses often use only catch-words to refer to legends etc. which are elaborately explained by later commentators. Ksemakirti, commenting on the Bșhat-Kalpa-sūtra Bhāsya and Niryukti, says that Arya Suhasti visited Ujjain for adoring the image of Jivantasvāmi. Kșemakirti (v.s. 1332=A.D. 1256), commenting on the BỊhat-Kalpa-sūtra-Bhāşya, verse 2753, explained a reference to pūrva caityas as under:
491f caffor ar' fare attaifafa rat.........11 (by pūrva caityas are meant ancient idols like the image of Jivantasvāmi etc.).9
The Avasyaka-curni10 of Jinadāsa (676 A.D.), giving an account of the origin of the city of Daśapura (modern Mandasor) narrates also the origin of the first image of Mahavira, when the Lord was alive (Jivanta Syami). According to this account, in a festival of Nandiśvara, Vidyunmäli, a demi-god, was advised by his friend Acyuta, another god, to worship an image of Varddhamana Mahāvira, the last Jina. Vidyunmāll fashioned an image of Mahāvira out of a kind of sandal-wood (gośīrṣa candana) from the Maha-Himavanta mountain. 11 This image was later on given by Vidyunmāli to a certain individual from whom it was taken by King Uddāyana, a contemporary of Mahāvira, ruling over Vitabhaya-pattana in the Sindhu-Sauvira land. Both Uddāyana and his queen Prabhāvats worshipped the image with great devotion. After the death of his 'queen, the king entrusted his slave-girl Devadattă with the worship of the image. But Devadatta, in love with Pradyota, the king of Ujjain (Avanti), managed to elope with her lover, carrying with her the original image of Mahavira but only after depositing in its place a copy of it prepared by Pradyota for the purpose. The theft was soon discovered and Uddāyana rushed after them with an army, overtook Pradyota before he reached Ujjain and defeated him with the help of ten confederate kings. Uddayana tried to remove the original image but the image would not move and a supernatural warning was heard that the Vitabhaya-pattana was destined to perish in a terrific sandstorm. Uddayana later on forgave Pradyota and released him on the Pajjusaņā day. This happened when both were encamped at Dasapura. Uddāyana had to maintain a camp here and erect a temporary mud-fortress as the rainy season had set in before he could return to his capital. Haribhadra sūri, in his Āvaśyakavptti,12 gives the same account.
The above account is repeated with many additional details by Hemacandrācārya in his Trişastisalākāpuruşacarita where it is said Pradyota dedicated the city of Daśapura for the worship of the Vitabhaya-image13 before he returned to Avantipuri. Once upon a time Pradyota went to Vidiśä and gave a grant of 12,000 villages for the worship of the image fashioned by Vidyunmāli. Uddāyana himself turned a Jaina monk after dedicating villages, mines and cities for the worship of the (new) Jivantasvāmi image left with him.14 The image remaining at Vitabhaya-pattana was the copy deposited by Pradyota, which, on the evidence of Hemacandra, was fashioned out of śri-khanda wood and was originally consecrated by a Svetāmbara sage named Kapila.15