Jaina Art and Architecture Vol 01

Author(s): A Ghosh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 21

CHAPTER 1
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS
EARLY IN 1971 I WAS REQUESTED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE BHARATIYA Jnanpith, a cultural institution for the promotion of oriental research and literary publications, to edit a work on Jaina Art and Architecture, to be published on the occasion of the Twenty-fifth Centennial of the Nirvåņa of Mahavira. I readily consented to accept the assignment, as this work was going to be the first of its kind ever published, and any person would be delighted to be associated with it. While Jaina monuments and sculpture figure prominently in all books of Indian art-history and there are isolated monographs and articles on individual monuments and images or groups of them, there is hardly any comprehensive work devoted exclusively to the art and architecture produced under the aegis of Jainism for the edification of the faith. Such brief surveys as exist are, besides being inadequate and sometimes inaccurate, oriented towards a particular point of view.
While, therefore, the justification for such a work cannot be doubted, it would be unwise, at the same time, to stress the exclusive nature of its contents. It is difficult to conceive of any Jaina artistic or architectonic creation that does not pertain to, and can be isolated from, the mainstream of Indian art and architecture. No doubt, the special religious and mythological concepts of Jainism produced sculptural forms not found in the creations of other denominations, but even these conformed to the style of the region and period to which they belonged. Thus, while representations of the samavasarana, Nandiśvara-dvipa, Astăpada, etc., typical of Jaina mythology, are peculiarly Jaina, in the style of execution even they followed the contemporary style of the region in which they were produced.
Leaving the standing figures on a Mohenjo-daro seal out of consideration, the Lohanipur Tirthankara images of Mauryan age (below, chapter 7) show that in all probability Jainism had the lead in the carving of images for veneration over Buddhism and Brāhmanism; no images of Buddha or any Brāhmaṇical deity of that antiquity have been found, though there are contemporary or near-contemporary Yakşa-statues, after the stylistic model of which the