Jain Rup Mandan

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

Page 61

Jaina-Ripa-Mandana fort, Jhansi District, Madhya Bharata. The sculpture (dated v.s. 107 (?), c. 1020 A.D.) includes representations of the twenty-four Jinas on all the three sides of the Mother (Studies in Jaina Art, Fig. 39), which shows that the image represents "The Mother of the Jina".
The Nativity figures are not unknown to other sects in ancient Indian sculpture. The Nativity of Buddha, found at the site of his birth, near the Lumbini Garden as also at Nalanda are well-known.5 The Nativity of Krsna is represented on the outer wall of the first Pancayatana temple at Ośia, assignable to the post-Gupta age. Similar representations are known from Eastern India, including representations showing the birth of Sadāśiva.7
The famous sculpture from Pathari, old Gwalior State, of a Mother lying on a cot with a child beside her, and attended upon by four maidens standing behind and holding the fan, the chowrie-a money bag (?) etc. in their hands, 8 is especially noteworthy since the Jaina traditions speak of Dik-kumāris serving the Mother at the time of the birth of a Jina. This sculpture can be identified as representing the Mother of a Jina and the identification is likely, especially when an old Jaina temple still exists at Pathari. It may be remembered that in Buddhist mythology, the Buddha is attended upon, not by females, but by Brahma
er four male deities, while a similar group is not known in Hinduism. It will be seeria Fig. 82 from a ceiling slab in the Neminātha shrine at Kumbharia (North Gujarat), which relates to the life of Pärśvanātha, King Aśvasena and Queen Vāmā (parents of Pårśva) are represented as seated side by side in the first row. The second and the third rows contain in separate sections parents of all the twenty-four Tirthankaras. As, however, the photograph shows only a part of the big slab, only a few of them, each completely labelled by the artist, can be seen in the plate. In each section are seated, side by side, on small seats, the Mother and Father of a Jina, with the child on the Mother's lap. The sculpture is assignable to c. 12th century A.D.
With this type may be considered a group of miniature paintings of the Kalpa sūtra. Figure 35 of Brown shows King Siddhartha and Queen Trisala (Parents of Mahävira) seated beside each other. the king on a somewhat bigger seat, and with a chatra above each. Here Trisalā narrated her dreams to Siddhartha who tells her that the dreams are a very auspicious omen. Of a similar type is fig. 117 of Brown, representing parents of Rşabha, the patriarch Nabhi and his Queen Marudevi. Figure 48 of Brown's KSP shows Siddhartha and Trisalā, listening to the interpreters of dreams (svapnapathaka) shown in a lower panel (also cf. figs. 40, 50 of Brown).
But this type of representation of the Parents of a Jina (seated side by side), on stone at Kumbharia or in the miniatures noted above, leads us to the examination of yet another group of sculptures which were lying unidentified. This type of sculpture generally shows a male and a female in princely attire, sitting under a tree, with a child on the female's lap. In almost all such cases, there is a seated Jina figure on the top of the tree (Figs. 80, 81, 85A).10 Sometimes both the male and the female hold a child each.11 In some cases the male holds a lotus or a citron 12 in one of his hands.13 Below the princely pair, in a lower panel, are found several seated or standing figures (Figs. 80, 81) and in some cases figures riding on horses are also seen. 14 Again, in some sculptures, 15 a group of children are shown near the feet of the male and the female. Sometimes, a small dwarfish figure is seen climbing the stem of the tree just above and in a sculpture in the Devgadh fort, a figure like this is represented on the branch of a tree.
In this connection, two sculptures from Khajuraho deserve special notice. In one (Fig. 85A) a small figure of a bull is placed between the pair, near their legs. In another (Fig. 81) are seen, at two ends below, representations of a Yaksa and Yaksi. Again, the chowrie-bearers to the right and the left of the male and the female may be noted.
Such representations are known to have been found in old Digambara shrines and old Jaina sites in the Gwalior State, Madhya Bharata, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. A few are also known from Bengal. They seem to have been gradually less popular in the Moghul period while older sites like Khajuraho, Devgadh, Budhi Canderi etc., abound in them.
Now, the presence of a Yakșa and a Yakși, as subordinate figures in Fig. 81, as also of fly-whisk bearers and the bull-cognizance in Fig. 85A) shows that such a pair does not represent the Yaksa and Yakși of a Tirthankara. Besides there are different kinds of trees in different sculptures which fact suggests that