Jinamanjari 2000 09 No 22

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

Page 32

the samavasarana. While the former has three levels bounded by 'ramparts', either circular or square, the latter has at the centre of its more complex structure a three-tiered pedestal.
The circle immediately around the central one in fig. 1 may be interpreted as arches made of bunched leaves. True to the Indian love of polyvalent symbolism and play on forms, these conformations also take on the aspect fish-tails and, when each uses the central circle, a ratnatraya. Leafy śrīvatsas or lotuses fill in the other four quarters of this level. Those could refer to the ornamental doorways over cach of the four roads of the samavasaraņa. In the Svetāmbara version they were made of 'emerald leaves'. In the Digambara literature they are described having arches, flags and festoons. " If the Jina and these leafarches are taken on one level, however, the whole could stand for the centre of the Digambara samavasarana, where the Tirthankara sits in his 'bower of fragrance', the gandhakuți.
SVETAMBARA SAMAVASARANA ENLARGEMENT OF CENTER)
Vyan tara-devis
Bhavanapatia
Jyotiska-dovlo -
Jyotiskas
Bhavanapa ti-devia
Vyan taras
Tree
<- jina
Y
Female Ascetics -
kal padeves
Valmanika-devis
Men
Easter Road
Mal. Ascetics -
Women
Fig. 7. Svetambara samavasarana - Enlargement of Centre. Drawing by Thomas A. Norton.
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