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Mathurā School of Jaina Art
99
pañcatīrthi image, a parikara has two Jinas in padmāsana and two are in khadagāsana in addition to mūlanāyaka. Thus a sculpture is called pañcatīrthi with the help of parikara. The lāñchana of the image goes with mūlanāyaka. The pedestal is the seat of Jina, carved below the cushion comprises with a yakşa-yakși pair of mūlanāyaka on extreme corners, a lion and an elephant on either side of centre's Prāsadā devi. At the centre below the Prāsadādevi, a dharmacakra is shown flanked by a pair of deer. Out of nine planets five are carved to the left and four are to the right at the bottom of the pedestal.
3.13 The eyes, hair arrangement, Uşnişa, facial expression and Nimbus
of Jinas: We have seen the conspicuous features of Jina images of different period. The identification of them is carried out by their appearance like nimbus, curls, stretched hands, urņā, eyes and aştaprātihārya on the parikara, etc. The details are as followsThe images of Kuşāņa period have either full open eyes (fig. 43, 56) or half open with smile on face (fig. 52, 54). The shape of the eyes is like an almond or a lotus (fig. 77, 78), the eyeballs in open eyes could be visible on some of the images (fig. 80). Here the eyebrows are in a line. The hair arrangement: The head of Tīrthankara image is either plain (fig. 77) or has different types of curls or combed hair. Some of the images of Jinas before Gupta era are available with neatly combed hair (fig. 62). The hair curls of sometimes turned towards left or right (fig. 93) is noticed. Many of the hair curls of Jina images of Kuşāņa period are in parallel crescent (fig. 79, 82). The Uşņișa: In Kuşāņa period, the uşnişa on head of Jina was not seen (fig. 1, 44), but sometimes slightly raised uşnişa is also noticed (fig. 60, 80). The Jina images on Ayāgapațas of early Kuşāņa period are with uşnişa (fig. 105, 106). Facial expression to provide Jina in various mode (bhāva) like Karunā (compession) and śānta rasa are almost not visible on face before Gupta era. During this time, true character of Jinas who have renounced the world and gained spiritual power does not properly appear on the face, instead an innocent smile (fig. 51) was provided to give pretty look.
