Jainthology

Author(s): Ganesh Lalwani
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 42

represent an image of a sina, probably of Jina Rşabha. T. N. Ramacandran, Jt. Director-General of Indian Archaeology after studying this question independently have declared that "we are perhaps recognising in Harappă statuette a fullfledged Jaina Tirthankara in the characteristic pose of physical abondon (kāyotsarga). The statuette under description is therefore a splendid representative specimen of this thought of Jainism at perhaps its very inception."
Figures on the Mohenjodāro seals also depict the yogic pose and idea of physical abandonment of the Jainas. These figures are represented as nude in standing kāyotsarga pose with a triśüla-like decoration on their head and the eye-sight fixed on the tip of the nose, which are the characteristics of an image of Jina, Prof. R. P, Chanda discussed it in detail as follows : "Not only the seated deities engraved on some of the Indus seals are in yoga posture and bear witness to the prevalence of yoga in the Indus Valley in that remote age, the standing deities on the seals also show käyotsarga posture of yoga. ... The kāyotsarga posture is peculiarly Jaina. It is a posture not of sitting but standing. In the Adipurāna, Book xviii, kāyotsarga posture is described in connection with the penances of Rşabha or Brşabha. A standing image of Jina Rşabha in kāyotsarga posture on a slab showing four such images, assignable to the 2nd century A.D. is in the Curzon Museum of Archaeology, Mathura. Among the Egyptian sculptures of the time of the early dynasties there are standing statues with arms, hanging on two sides. But though these early Egyptian statues and the archaic Greek kouroi show nearly the same pose, they lack the feeling of abandon that characterises the standing figures on the Indus seals and images of Jinas in the kāyotsarga posture. The name Rşabha means 'bull' and the bull is the emblem of Jina Rsabha,"
Therefore it is possible that the figures of the Yogi with bull on the Indus seals represent the Mahāyogi Rşabha. The images of Rşabha with triśūla-like decoration on the head in a developed artistic shape are also found at a later period. Thus the figures on the Mohenjodāro seals vouchsafe the prevalence of the religion and worship of Jina Rşabha at the early period on the western coast of the country.
[ April 1972 )
JAINTHOLOGY/21