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MONUMENTS & SCULPTURE 300 B.C. TO A.D. 300
[PART II
The Vasudeva-hindi, an early text of the fourth-fifth century A.D., speaks of a Jivantasvāmin (life-time image of Mahavira) at Ujjain. The Brhat-KalpaBhasya (circa sixth century) also refers to it, and the Tikd on this work gives a fuller account of the conversion of Samprati to Jainism by Arya Suhastin during the ratha-yatra festival (of this image) at Ujjain."
The Avašyaka-Cūrni of Jinadāsa (seventh century) gives an account of the queen of Uddayapa of Vitabhayapattana, in Sindhu-Sauvira, as worshipping a Jivantasvāmin sandalwood portrait of Mahavira, which was later carried off by Pradyota of Avanti and ultimately continued in worship at Vidišā. But we have no other evidence of Jina worship in Maurya or Sunga period in territories west of Avanti-Malwa region.
The first portrait-sculpture of Mahāvira, made of sandalwood, was thus worshipped by the queen of king Uddāyana of Vitabhayapattana. This was carried away by Pradyota of Avanti and installed for worship later at Vidiśā. But Pradyota took away the original only after depositing a copy of it in Vitabhayapattana. A further interesting account of these statues is given by the great scholiast and monk Hemacandrācārya in his Trisasti-salākā-purusacarita, which shows that the original image of Vidišā later came to be worshipped as Bhaillasvamin," while the copy at Vitabhayapattana was buried in a sandstorm along with the city itself. Uddayana had installed it in a temple and donated gifts for its worship by issuing royal charters. According to Hemacandra, Kumarapāla, the Caulukyan king whose rule extended up to Sind in the west, Jalor and parts of Rajasthan in the north and over almost the whole of modern Gujarat, sent special officers to the site of the capital of Sauvirā, and they dug out the wooden statue along with the charter issued by
* Vasudeva-hindi, ed. Muni Chaturvijaya and Punyavijaya, Bhavnagar, 1930, khanda I, part I, p. 61. The image at Ujjain is also referred to in the Avasyaka-Cürni of Jinadasa, Ratiem, 1923, II, p. 157. For the Jivantasvāmin image, see U.P. Shah, 'A unique Jaina image of Jivantagvāmi', Journal of the Oriental Institute, I, 1951-52, pp. 72-79, and 'Sidelights on the life-time sandalwood image of Mahāvira', ibid., pp. 358-68.
Brhat-Kalpa-Bhasya, III, gåtha 3277, pp. 917 ff. The Kalpa-Cümnt, still in MSS. (earlier than the Tikä on Bphat-Kalpa-Bhasya), also describes this, sce quotation in Muni Kalyanavijaya, "Vira-pirvåņa-samvat aur Jaina kalaganana', Ndgari Pracårini Patrika (Hindi journal), Benaras,
X, 1930. Avasyaka.Caraca, Surat, 1999
Avašyaka-Cural, I, pp. 397-401, commenting on Av.-Niryukti, gdthd 774. Also see Ay-Vriti of Haribbadra, Surat, 1916, I, part 2, pp. 296-300; Iv.-Niryakth, 1, pp. 156 f.; Jagdish Chandra Jain, Life as Depicted in the Jaina Canons, Bombay, 1947, p. 349; Shah, op. cit.
Trisasti-Salaka-purusa-carita, parvan 10, sarga 11, especially verses 604 ff. Ibid., sarga 11, verses 623 ff.
