Jain Rup Mandan

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

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Jaina-Rupa-Mandana
Amongst the Rajgir sculptures a very curious specimen is discovered. Here whereas the Tirthankara sitting in the padmasana has seven snake-hoods overhead--and hence he must be Pārsvanātha, or at the most Supārsvanatha, since no other Tirthankara has snake-hoods overhead-the lañchana on each side of the dharmacakra is a conch which is the cognizance of Neminatha. Either there was a mistake of the sculptor or the cognizances were not yet finalised. Fig. 24 illustrated here again is from Rajgir and represents Pārsvanātha in padmasana, with seven snake-hoods overhead. On two sides of the Jina are miniature figures of the eight planets, four on each side, below the celestial mala-dharas, above them are the drums. Below the planets on each side is an attendant flywhisk-bearer. The Jina sits on a visvapadma, a double-lotus, placed on a pedestal. The right side of the pedestal is much defaced so also the central portion which probably had the dharmacakra. To the left is an elephant facing what possibly was the dharmacakra. If this was the cognizance then again we have another proof that in art either the sculptor made a mistake or that in their early stage the cognizances were not universally fixed. This sculpture is an example of Pala art of about the eighth century A.D.
Even though images of not even one of the 24 Tirthankaras are described in the Jaina canonical Arga works, we are able to obtain some conception of the Jina-image from the stock description of the Sasvata-Jina pratimas in the Sasvata-Caityas also called the Siddhāyatanas. Jaina traditions of both the sects refer to the Siddhayatanas, discussed in Chapter One. These Siddhāyatanas contain images of the Sasvata Jinas, four in number, namely, Candrānana, Värisena, Rşabha and Varddhamana.31 They are called Saśvata Jinas because in every utsarpini and avasarpini age names of these four are always repeated and they flourish in any of the fifteen karmabhūmis. A long description of Siddhāyatanas and Sasvata Jinas is found in the Upanga text called the Jivajivābhigama sutra.32 These eternal shrines are found in various heavens and on mountain peaks. The Nandiśvara dvipa, for example, is reported to have fiftytwo Siddhāyatanas in all (Fig. 179).
These descriptions again make no reference to the lañchanas of the various Tirtharkaras. Varāhamihira who described the Jina image did not refer to the cognizance. There was enough scope for introducing the lañchanas in the Samavāyanga-sútra, the Kalpa-sutra and the Sthänănga-sútra in the age of the vacană (edition of the canon) under Arya Skandila in the Mathura Council of c. 300-315 A.D. or even in the Valabhi vacană of c. 453 A.D., but we do not find any mention of them. But still we find the lañchanas being introduced from late fourth or early fifth century A.D. as at Sira Pahari, Rajgir etc. But their position on the pedestal of a Jina image was not fixed nor was the cognizance universally popular in art. What was the basis or the source from which the list of läñchanas was prepared?
In the State Museum, Lucknow, there is a small square pillar, Mu. No. J.268, with low relief carvings on two sides only. It hails from the Kankali Tila, Mathura. A relief on one side shows a male and a female circumambulating a pillar sumounted by a lion. The style of carvings (Fig. 164) suggests an age c. second or first century B.C. Circumambulation of the pillar in this relief shows that this lionpillar was regarded as a sacred object. We are here reminded of the garuda-dhvaja set up by Heliodorus at Vidiśā in front of a Vişnu-temple. We also know of tala-dhvaja capital (which must have been set up in front of a shrine of Balarama) and a Banyan-tree capital probably from a pillar in front of a shrine of Kubera; a makara-dhaja capital probably came from a pillar in front of a shrine of Kamadeva or Pradyumna, one of the Vrsni Viras, of Pancarätra worship.
This Simha-dhvaja (lion-pillar) held sacred by the Jainas of Mathura is a miniature representation in relief of a bigger Simha-dhvaja which might have been erected in front of a shrine dedicated to Varddhamana Mahāvira, since the lion is known to have been the cognizance (lāñchana) of Mahavira. Acārya Hemacandra while listing the lañchanas of the twenty-four Jinas in his Abhidhana-Cintamani kośa calls them Arhatâm dhvajah (the dhvajas or heralds of the Arhats, the signs on the banners of the Tirthankaras).33 This is also the view of the Digambara writer Pandit Asadhara that the herald of the Ksatriya family of each Jina became his lañchana.34 We know from an Ahicchatra terracotta plaque, published by V.S. Agrawala, showing two Mahabharata heroes fighting, that they had two different emblems (boar and the crescent) on their banners (dhvajas).35 According to Jaina traditions, all the Tirthankaras were born in Ksatriya families. So, the emblems or crests on their banners were regarded as their cognizances