Jaina Rock Cut Caves In Western India Part 01

Author(s): Viraj Shah
Publisher: Agam Kala Prakashan

Page 44

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Jaina Rock-cut Caves in Western India devi, the goddess of peace was invoked to remove troubles, obstacles, difficulties, diseases, evils etc and was depicted as a four-armed deity with lotuses in upper arms and pot and rosary in lower arms at the base of the lion throne of the Jina, mainly in western India.
The other popular images were scenes from the life of Jina, especially the five kalyānakas like cyavana, janma, diksa, keval-jñana and nirvāṇa of every Jina. The most popular scene depicted in Deccan region is the episode of attack on Parsvanatha by his archrival Kamatha. They were enemies from the time of their first birth as Marubhuti and demon Kamatha and in each of the births Kamatha killed Marubhuti. In the last birth Marubhuti was born as Parávanātha and once as a prince he saw Kamatha, born as the ascetic Katha, performing pañchāgni penance and through his knowledge realized that a pair of snakes was burning alive in one of the logs of fire. When Parsvanātha rescued the snake pair, Katha's pride as all-knowing sage was hurt. He died full of hate and was reborn as demon Meghamalin. After Parsvanātha had renounced the world and was almost at the stage of achieving keval-jnana while meditating under a tree, Meghamalin attacked him to disturb him. He conjured up all sorts of fierce animals and when nothing worked, finally attacked him with torrential rain, lightening and storm. At this time, the serpent who was saved by Parsvanātha and who was reborn as the king of snakes, Dharanendra, came to the rescue of Parsvanātha with his wives. He placed a lotus under Parsvanatha's feet and covered him with his hoods, while his consort Padmāvati held a chhatra above his head. When Meghamalin continued with his attack, the snake-king threatened to kill him. He ran to Parávanātha for refuge and asked for forgiveness. This scene is very similar to Mara's attack on Buddha, but while Mara tried to distract Buddha and also used his beautiful daughters to lure him, Kamatha attacked out of spite, anger and hate and women did not form part of his attack.
Another popular depiction is the scene of Bahubali's penance. The first tirthankara Rsabhanātha distributed his empire equally among his hundred sons, including Bharata and Bahubali. When Bharata desired the share of his brothers' empire after conquering the entire earth for becoming a chakravartin, his brothers readily parted with it and renounced the world. But Bahubali refused and Bharata marched against him. To avoid unnecessary loss of life, both agreed to decide the matter through duels of staring, dousing and boxing. On the verge of winning the final duel, Bahubali suddenly realized the futility of all and renounced the world at that moment. He stood meditating for years, while anthills and creepers grew around him and animals started moving freely around him. In spite of rigorous penance, he could not achieve keval-jñana because of some amount of pride still left in him. His sisters or vidyadharis, according to another version came down from heaven and made his realize this and he finally achieved salvation.