Jaina Mahavidyas in Osian

Author(s): Maruti Nandan Prasad Tiwari, Kamalgiri
Publisher: Z_Nirgrantha_1_022701.pdf and Nirgrantha_2_022702.pdf and Nirgrantha_3_022703.pdf

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JAINA MAHAVIDYĀS IN OSIAN
Maruti Nandan Prasad Tiwari
and
Kamal Giri
Osiāñ (District Jodhpur, Rajasthan) was an important Pratīhāra township with several early temples, of which 13 are today extant. Besides several Brahminical temples, the site has a Jaina temple, dedicated to Jina Mahāvīra which, in fact, is the oldest standing Jaina temple in all of Western India. The temple possibly was built towards the close of the eighth century A. D. during the period of Vatsarāja Pratīhāra (A. D. 783-92)'. The temple complex faces north and rests on a vast jagati. It comprises mukhamandapa (forehall) with a mukhacatuski (porch), gūdhamandapa (closed hall), and mūlaprāsāda (sanctum) (Plate 1). On the front of the temple, there was a torana (now dismantled) and further ahead is a balanaka which, for its greater part, is contemporaneous with the temple and is articulated on the east with a devakulikā assignable to c. late tenth century A. D. The torana and the balanaka possess inscriptions respectively dated in V. S. 1076/A. D. 1019/ and 1013/A. D. 956. The balanaka inscription reports that it was refurbished by some Jindaka in A. D. 956. On the east and west, close to the main temple, stands a pair each of the devakulikās datable to the first half of the 11th century A. D.2 The Jaina buildings at the site are the products exclusively of the Svetārbara sect. The hieratic figures on the main temple walls and the hall-superstructure are the earliest known Jaina sculptures in association with the temple-structure and hence are significant. They include Mahāvidyas, Yaksas like Pārsva, Sarvānubhūti and Varuna, Yaksīs like Ambikā amd Padmavatī, and the Asta-Dikpālas, as also Sarasvati and Mahālakṣmi. The medieval torana and the five devakulikās likewise illustrate Mahavidyas, Asta-Dikpālas, Yakși Ambikā, and the Yaksas Sarvānubhūti and Brahmaśānti. The rendering of the Jivantasvāmī Mahāvīra on the torana-jarghā, and as independent images, Ganesa, and narratives from the lives of the Jinas on the devakulikās also merit attention since they are among the earliest representations of the subjects? The present paper wishes to deal with the iconography of the Mahāvidyās associated with this temple complex where they seem to have occupied a special position. They are significant as the earliest examples of that category. On one side they reveal an iconographic evolution and on the other an almost complete concordance with the prescriptions of the Caturvimsatikā of Bappabhatti sūri (c. late 8th century A. D.) and the Nirvănakalikā of Pādalipta sūri III (c. A. D. 950). Incidentally, the forms of the Svetāmbara Mahāvidyās, in some cases, are practically repeated on the Digambara Jaina temple No. 12 (śāntinātha : A. D. 862) at Deogarh", particularly the iconography