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CHAPTER 351
ICONOGRAPHY Šilpa-works like the Aparăjita-prccha, the Devata-mürti-prakarana, the Rupamand ana and the Vastu-sära of Thakkura Pheru, besides earlier works like the Manasära, are other very important sources for the study of Jaina iconography.
SYMBOLS
There is no Creator-god in Jaina philosophy and strictly speaking image-worship is not absolutely necessary for the attainment of emancipation. It is the bhāva-worship (mental attitude) and not dravya-worship (physical worship, idol-worship) that really matters as shown by Kundakundācārya Jaina worship is, therefore, regarded as a worship not of a god-head or a deity but of a human being who has reached perfection of the soul freed from all bondage. And again it is not hero-worship in its usual sepse but is the aggregate of qualities of the Perfect Man, of the Liberated Soul that is remembered, adored and developed in one's own self by the worshipper by worshipping the idol of the Jina. The idol therefore serves more the purpose of a symbol of the aggregate of certain qualities than of a portrait of a Tirthankara or a maha-puruṣa. Emancipated souls or Siddhas or Tirtharkaras (those Siddhas who establish tbe Jaina Tirtha constituted of śrāvaka, śrāvika, sådhu and sådhvi) are souls freed from attachment (råga) or jealousy (dveşa) and therefore neither favour nor frown upon the worshipper of their idols. In worshipping the idol, the devotee remembers the qualities or virtues of the Jina and tries to imbibe them in one's own life and being.
It is therefore obvious that idol-worship was introduced and sanctioned in Jainism only because the common man or the lay-worshipper could not do without it and was possibly already accustomed to some sort of imageworship. Worship of Yakşas, Nāgas, Bhūtas, Mukunda, Indra, Skanda, Vasudeva, trees, rivers, etc., is often referred to in the Jaina canons. These deities were invoked with various desires for reward, for obtaining children and so on. Naturally, therefore, Jainism imbibed elements of this type of worship while it began worshipping Tirthankaras, Siddhas and monks in various stages of spiritual progress and sect-hierarchy. It is also possibly an attempt to replace and eliminate or undermine worship of elements of nonJaina character and association. It was but natural that in the beginning was introduced and enjoined worship of image of the Arhats (Tirthankaras), Siddhas, Acāryas (heads of a particular group of monks, nuns and their devotees a gana or a gaccha or a kula), Upadhyāyas (monks who read out and explain the scriptures to others) and Sädhus (ordinary monks). These are called the Five Supreme Ones...the Pasca-Parameşthins.
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