Jain Rup Mandan

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

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Origin of the Jina-Image and the Jivantasyåmi-pratima
Hemacandra informs us that the image at the buried in sandstorm) city of Vitabhaya was recovered by the Chalukya king Kumāra pala after excavation by his specially appointed officers. Along with the image was recovered the inscribed grant given by Uddayana. Kumārapäla erected a temple at Patan (his capital, north Gujarat) and installed the image therein. 16
Hemacandra further informs us that Vidyunmāli had prepared the image after seeing the person of Mahavira standing in the pratima-dhyana in the latter's palace (at Ksatriya-Ku da-grāma). 17 Thus the Jivita-svāmi or Jivanta-svāmi image represents an image of Mahavira, 18 fashioned as a portrait in his lifetime before the great Jaina teacher took to monk-hood. The image, therefore, should show the ornaments of a Prince. Strictly speaking, the title Jivantasvāmi can only be applied to a portrait carved in the lifetime of a Jina. At a later stage, images modelled after the original life-time portrait sculpture of sandalwood, showing the same iconography, came to be known as Jivantasväml images. The Akota bronzes (Figs. 29, 30) are Jivantasväml images in this sense.
Hemacandra further notes that Pradyota and Devadattā, engrossed in sensual pleasures, gave the original sandalwood image of Jivitasvāmi to a merchant Bhräjila residing in the city called Vidiśā, for worship and care, 19 The snake-god Dharanendra gave a boon to this Bhra jilasvami that Fradyota would found a city commemorating Bhrajila's name. Dharanendra further predicted that this Jina image would in course of time be concealed under a new cover by followers of false faith who would proclaim it as an image of the Sun-god known as Bhrājilasvāmi.20 We are further told by Hemacandra that after release from the captivity of Uddayana, once Pradyota went to Vidiśā and founded a divine city there. Hemacandra's account thus states that the original image of Jivitasvāmi was preserved at Vidiśā. But the Vasudevahindi and Ksemakirti's commentary on the BỊhat-Kalpa-Bhāşya speak of a Jivantasväml image at Ujjain. The Brhat-Kalpa-Cürpi,21 which is calier than the comm. of Ksemakirti, also states that Arya Suhasti went to Ujjain for adoration of the Jiyasāmi in the city. There while he was walking in the ratha-yātrā (procession of the Jina-image placed in a chariot) he was seen by king Samprati watching the yāträ from his Palacewindow. The puzzle is solved by a reference from the Āvaśyaka-cūrni22 where it is said that both Arya Mahăgiri and Arya Suhasti went to Vidiśā to worship the Jitapadima. From this place Mahāgiri went to a place called Edakaksa (formerly called Daśārnapura) where he died on a mountain called Gajāgrapada. Arya Suhasti then went to Ujjain for adoration of the Jivitasvāmi image in that city.
Evidently another image of Jivantasvāmi was installed at Ujjain sometime after the Pradyota incident narrated above.
That the original image was installed at Vidiśā (modern Besnagara near Bhilsa, M.P.) is further supported by the Niśitha-Cūrņi23 which says that Ārya Suhasti went to Vidiśā, to worship the Jivantasvāmi, where the ratha-yatrā festival took place. According to this text the first meeting of Suhasti and Samprati also took place here on this occasion.24
It seems that with the passage of time many more copies of the original portrait sculpture, that is, the Jivan tasvāmī image, were made and installed at different Jaina tirthas. The ţikä on a gathā of the BỊhatKalpa-Bhāşya (vol. V, p. 1536) speaks of a Jivantasvāmi image at Kośalā.25
In the Akota hoard of Jaina bronzes was found an inscribed image of Jivantasvämi (Fig. 29). The inscription on the pedestal of the bronze, incised in characters of middle sixth century A.D., reads:26
L. 1. Om Devadharmoyam Jivantasāmi L. 2. pratima Candrakulikasya L. 3. Nagisvarī śrāvikasyāḥ.
The bronze represents Mahavira in a standing attitude (kāyotsarga mudro) and wearing a dhoti held with a girdle. The right arm is mutilated and lost but the left arm shows a bracelet and an armlet. The Jina wears a crown, ear-rings and a necklace. A more beautiful bronze (Fig. 30), partly mutilated and with the pedestal lost, also found in the Akota hoard, dates from c. late fifth century A.D.27 A bigger bronze of Jivantasvāmi, from a Jaina temple in Jodhpur (Fig. 37), dates from c. 8th cent. A.D.28 Two stone sculptures of Jivantasvāmi from a temple in Sirohi, published carlier by us, 29 date from c. 10th