Jinamanjari 1996 04 No 13

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 15

a
show figures seated in specific yogic positions or asanas possible range of asanas which for convenience I will generically call mulabandhasana. In this type of position which is not really sitting so much as squatting -- the heels are raised and joined under the perineum; the knees may or may not be extended to the sides. The arms lie as if limply on the knees. This position appears often enough in Indus Valley seals to be considered characteristic, and also in several later contexts, down to the present day. It may be presumed to have existed continuously in India throughout this period.
Though not in the publicized foreground of yoga, the mulabandhasana type of posture has surfaced in a series of related instances. Chronologically, the first appearances after the Indus Valley seals occur in two of the oldest Jain works, the Akaranga Sutra and the Kalpa Sutra. Both narrate traditional lives of the last thirthankara, Mahavira, which centre around the iconic moment of his enlightenment. The Kalpa Sutra says [my italics]:
During the thirteenth year, in the second month of the summer...on the northern bank of the river Rigupalia, in the field of a householder Samagra, in a north-eastern direction from an old temple, not far from a Sal tree, in a squatting position with joined heels, exposing himself to the heat of the sun, after fasting two and a half days without drinking water, being engaged in deep meditation, he reached the highest knowledge and intuition, called kevala, which is infinite, supreme, unobstructed, unimpeded, complete, and full (KS 120) 16.
The phrase "in a squatting position with joined heels: indicates one of the forms of the mulabandhasana, the dominant posture in the Indus seal impressions. The phrase is repeated in the corresponding passage of the Akaranga Sutra,
12
For Private Personal Use Only