Jain Temples of Rajasthan

Author(s): Sehdav Kumar
Publisher: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Art Abhinav Publications

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as the thunderbolt or book, while the most widely uttered incantation associated with Avalokitesvara is Om mani padme hum, meaning 'Om, the jewel in the lotus'.
In an eighteenth-century watercolour from Thailand, the Buddha is not represented as a human being but as a golden lotusbud decoration placed in the otherwise empty pavilion above the Earth goddess. In a nineteenth-century Japanese woodblock the Buddha Sakyamuni is depicted with his feet resting on lotuses, and he appears to float in a starry atmosphere. In another illustration, the child Buddha stands naked on a large lotus-shaped basin as two mythical dragons bathe the divine child from above.
Thus, whether supporting the book symbolising wisdom or knowledge, as in representations of the Buddhist deities of wisdom such as Manjūśrī or Prajnaparamita, or in itself signifying enlightenment, "the lotus symbol", in the words of Heinrich Zimmer, "which originally gave birth to beings and existences in unending succession, now carries the powerful wisdom of Nirvana: the Word that puts an end to all individual existence, whether in heaven or on earth."11
From the earliest times the lotus has remained a unique metaphor for the heart of the devotee: hrd-puskara; hrd-padma, the primary abode of the deity. The 'lotus heart' is further likened to space, ākāśa; its eight petals representing four directions and four intermediate points of the compass. The eight-petalled lotus is basic to the drawings called mandalas, which later came to play an important role in all three spiritual traditions. One of the earliest uses of the lotus with this symbolic meaning is represented in the ceilings of the Gupta-period Buddhist cave temples at Ajanta.
In Tantric and Kundalini Yoga, the representation of the human body as a microcosm and its special geography is of supreme importance. The main axis of the human spinal cord is considered the pivot of the universe; it is the meru-danda, in analogy with Mount Meru. Along this axis are a series of cakras in the shape of lotuses, with different number of petals.
Significantly, Tantric spiritual praxis requires the practitioner to pass through several stages or processes of cosmogenesis, the final plane located at the summit of the skull being known as 'lotus head', usnisa kamala, to the Buddhists and 'the thousand-petalled lotus' sahasrara padma or cakra to the Hindus and the Jains. A very early representation of this idea occurs on a mid sixth-century Nrsimha, an avatar of Viṣṇu, where a lotus grows out of the god's head.
The lotus rhizomes and yakṣas, or lotus as a floral design are to be seen on pillars, railing medallions and other places on the Buddhist monuments at Bharhut, Sanchi, Amaravati, Bodhgaya, and in the early rock-cut temples of Western India.
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