Jain Rup Mandan

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

Page 98

Devādhideva Tirtharkara
85
Under such circumstances it is necessary to compare the lists of lañchanas given by the two sects. The list, given here, will show that the points of difference are with regard to the cognizance of the fourteenth Jina Anantanätha whose lañchana is the falcon according to Hemacandra, but the bear according to the Digambaras, regarding that of the tenth Jina Sitalanátha whose lañchana is śri-vatsa according to Hemacandra but svastika (Tiloyapannatti) or the sridruma (Pratisthäsāroddhāra) according to the Digambaras, and regarding the cognizance of Aranātha the eighteenth Jina whose cognizance is the fish according to the Digambara tradition29 and the nandyavarta according to the Svetambara sect. Amongst the Digambara writers there are a few differences--the Tiloyapaņņatti gives nandyavar ta for the seventh Jina while the Pratisthāsāroddhāra gives the svastika (thus agreeing with the Sve. tradition of Hemacandra); according to the Tiloyapannatti, the tenth Jina has the svastika lāñchana, but it is sridruma according to the Pratisthāsāroddhāra.
Since the earliest available literary source for lanchanas in any of the two Jaina sects is later than their origin and since there are a few differences in their lists, we must also seek archaeological evidence to arrive at a correct solution regarding the age of origin of the cognizance. So far as the analysis of the literary evidence is concerned, this age must be at least contemporaneous with the age of final separation of the two sects regarding image worship, which age, as we have shown elsewhere, 30 is about the latter half of the fifth century A.D., somewhere near the age of the second Valabhi Council, for otherwise the general concordance between lists of the two sects cannot be satisfactorily explained. This would be the age of finalization of the two different lists and their appearance on pedestals of Tirthankara-images, but not necessarily the date of the origin of the conception of the lañchana. In art they begin to appear by the fifth century A.D. but is that the age of the origin of the conception of the cognizance?
The earliest sculpture, known hitherto, showing a cognizance on the pedestal is the sculpture of Neminātha from Rajgir, first published by Ramaprasad Chanda.304 The head is separated and badly defaced, but the rest of the sculpture is well-preserved (Fig. 26). The pedestal shows, in the centre, a young person standing in front of an oblong cakra both beautifully carved, in the unmistakable style of the Gupta age. This is the Cakrapuruṣa, a typical Gupta period conception in art. The dharmacakra in the centre of the pedestal is here personified. On each side of the dharmacakra is a conch which is the cognizance of Neminātha according to both the sects. A partly preserved line of an inscription on the edge of the pedestal, as read by Chanda, refers to Candragupta, whom he has identified with Chandragupta Il on the evidence of the script of the inscription.
Cognizances of Tirthankaras are not found on sculptures of the Kusana period, but they do appear on sculptures of the Gupta period at Rajgir, Sira Pahari, Varanasi, etc. However, their postion on the pedestal, or in the parikara of a Jina was not finally fixed.
A post-Gupta sculpture on the Vaibhāra hill, Rajgir, dating from c. seventh-eighth century A.D., representing Adinātha, shows, on the pedestal, the dharmacakra flanked by a bull on either side (vide Jaina Art and Architecture, Vol. I, ed. by A. Ghosh, pl. 90). The bull is the cognizance of Adinātha who is here further recognised by the hair-locks falling on his shoulders. Later we find two deer flanking the two sides of the dharmacakra while the cognizance is either above the dharmacakra or below it, on the pedestal. This practice of showing the dharmacakra flanked by two deer on pedestals of all Tirthankara images was in imitation of Buddha images.
Two sculptures from Sira Pahari near Nachna Kuthara in Central India, one of standing Rsabhanātha and the other of sitting Mahavira, published as plates 63 and 62 respectively in Jaina Art and Architecture, Vol. 1, show the cognizance on each of the two ends of the pedestal while the dharmacakra is in the centre as usual. The two sculptures seem to represent a stage of transition from the Kuşāna to the Gupta art and seem to date from c. fourth century A.D. Fig. 61 in the same book, from Vidišā, of an unidentified Tirthankara, and having no cognizance, also dates from the fourth century A.D. (also see Fig. 27 in this book). On a bronze image of Rşabhanātba from the Vasantagadh hoard, now in worship in a Jaina temple in Pindawada, we find the bull cognizance on each end of the pedestal while the dharmacukra is in the centre (Fig. 34).