Jain Rup Mandan

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

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Jaina-Rupa-Mandana
The Yaksas, Nagas and others had to be given a place in Jaina worship. Since the Buddhist representations of Jambhala and Hārīti became very popular, they had to be incorporated in Jaina worship and towards the close of the Gupta age, a Yakşa and a Yakşiņi of the type of Jambhala and Hariti came to be incorporated as attendant pair of the Tirthankaras on Tirthankara sculpture. But before that the yakṣas were included as attendant chowrie-bearers on the two sides of a standing or sitting Tirthankara.
A hymn addressed to a snake-goddess Vairofya is ascribed to Arya Nandila or Arya Anandila who, according to traditions, lived in c. first century A.D. Vairotyâ is a snake-goddess and possibly connected with Jangoli-vijjā or a charm against snake-poisoning. Belief in Yaksas and Nāgas etc. is fairly old in Jainism and Dharanendra is a snake-deity one of whose chief queens is called Vairotyä in the canons. With the rise of Padmavati sometime towards the close of the post-Gupta period, Vairotya lost her old great popularity. Vairotya is one of the sixteen Jaina Mahavidyās.
Four more goddesses are very ancient in Jaina worship, though they have not been traced hitherto in sculptures. They are Vijaya, Jaya, Jayantā and Aparajita, invoked in the Varddhamana Vidya. It seems that these goddesses were worshipped under various names by all sects and have been invoked by the Jainas at least from the age of Vajrasvami in the first or second century.. The later Jaina Santi-devi is based on Vijaya as shown in the following pages.
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Bahubali became popular in Jaina worship at least in the post-Gupta age, not as a Kamadeva (he is also a Kamadeva in Jaina literature) but as a great sage, the Jaina counterpart of the conception of Valmiki. It is noteworthy that not a single sculpture of Bahubali has been recovered hitherto from the Kankali Tila finds at Mathura.
Belief in magic charms, as shown in an earlier paper in our discussion on the Vidyadevis, is very old and Vidyas existed even in the age of Mahavira and Buddha. The Paumacariya and the Vasudevahindi are our earliest sources for the different Vidya-devis like Rohini, Prajñapti, Saravästramahājvālā, Gauri and Gāndhari. Soon sixteen goddesses came to be regarded as the chief Vidyadevis (Mahavidyās) as can be traced in literature, though no early sculptures are traced hitherto. It is however very likely that representations dating from at least the post-Gupta age may be traced of these goddesses.
Parents of the Jinas were accorded special veneration from very early times and the figure representing the Tablet of Aryavati from Mathura seems to have represented the Mother of Mahāvīra.
The scripture (Sruta) was not forgotten by the Jainas and the Goddess of Learning was venerated from very early times, as can be inferred from the famous sculpture of Sarasvati from Kankali Tila which is the earliest known sculpture of the Goddess of Learning, discovered hitherto in India. Śri figures on an arch of a doorway in the Ananta-Gumpha in Orissa and is a proof that from ancient times the Jainas worshipped both the goddess of learning as well as the goddess of wealth.
It is highly probable that at a very early stage, the Jainas also worshipped images of the Sun-god,53 just as they included Indras, Sarasvati, Lakṣmi, Vasudeva, Baladeva and others in their pantheon. It is but natural to expect that the popularity of Sun-worship amongst the masses attracted the Jainas as well. The Jainas have from very early times taken interest in astronomy and amongst the oldest existing works showing the existence of astronomical speculations in ancient India are the Jaina Suryaprajñapti and the Jyotiskarandaka. Padalipta in the first or second century A.D. wrote a commentary on the Jyotiskaraṇḍaka, a manuscript of which was discovered by Muni Śri Punyavijayaji, a few years ago from Jesalmer. This shows the interest of the Jainas in Astronomy and we would not be wrong if we infer the existence of sun icons amongst the Jainas at Mathura in at least the Kuṣāṇa age.
Towards the close of the post-Gupta age, the growth of the pantheon obtained a further impetus and a separate yakṣa and yakşini were evolved for each of the twenty-four Tirthankaras. This growth is due to several factors: one, the growth of Tantric literature in India, two, the growth of smaller states with great ambitions and the revival of Indian art and culture in the post-Gupta age after the Huna onslaught. Another factor was state-support to the Jainas in several provinces. All these factors combined led to further activity in art and literature and the new deities or old Indian deities in new roles appeared in due course. A glance at the list of attendant yakṣas and yakṣiņis will show that some of them are Hindu