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MATHURA B.7, plate 46). The spokes of the wheel are very oftea sixteen in number, but there is no umiformity. The wheel appears in a natural form when shown enface but is more decorative when in profile. Sometimes it has a string passing through its nave (AMM, 18.1388). This brings it closer to the cakra as a weapon, in which case the string was necessary for throwing the missile, even though the dharma-cakra was the wheel of law promulgated by a Tirthankara and not a weapon. By the end of the Gupta period, the Jainas too had adopted the famous "deer-and-wheel' motif (AMM, B.75), which was popular with the Buddhists and meaningful to them.
(3) In the Gupta age the line of worshippers flanking the sacred wheel, which perhaps had its origin in Gandhāra art, gradually disappears. In m the Gupta sculptures they are either absent (SML, J.119; AMM, 12.268, plate 47B), or are symbolized by just two persons seated on knees with folded hands (SML, J.118, plate 44).
(4) On some of the pedestals a new feature comes into prominence, and that is the depiction of the Supreme Ones'. The Kahaum inscription calls them Pancendras, and they can be identified as Adinātha, Santinātha, Neminātha, Parsvanātha and Mahavira.' The depiction of these five Jinas together in one sculpture seems to have started in the Gupta age at Mathură. Along with the central figure of one of them, the other four would be depicted in miniature either on the pedestal or on the back-slab (e.g. AMM, B.7, plate 46, SML, J.121, plate 47A). The availability of space would decide their appearance in either padmasana or khad gdsana. For example, in the Neminátha figure cited above (SML, J.121, plate 47A) three are in meditation, while one stands crect.
(5) The lions appearing on the pedestals to symbolize the cakravartin status of the Jina deserve a special study. Right from Kushan times they apDear at the two ends of the pedestal in one of the following positions (fig. VII. 1-4): (a) standing enface (SML, J.32, J.34, J.40, etc.); (b) standing to front but with the face in profile, facing cach other (SML, J.25, J.29, J.30, J.33, etc.); (c) standing slightly enface in a position between (a) and (b) (SML, J.35); and (d) sejant seated back to back (SML, J.14, J.17, J.18, J.19, T.27, etc.).
In the Gupta period some new styles came into vogue in the depiction of the lions (fig. VII, 5-6): (a) back to back in couchant position with tails upraised (AMM, 18.1388, B. 6, 57.4338, etc.); (b) seated back to back, but with
IS. B Dob, History of Salma Montachilon, Poona, 1956, p. 103.
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