Jinamanjari 2000 09 No 22

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

Page 33

The aştamangalas were given predominant positions in both Śvetāmbara and Digambara samavasaraņa. In the former, "...below the arches were the eight auspicious signs, svastika, etc., just like those on offering stands."18 Lined up as they are in the upper and lower bands of fig. 1, the aştamangalas could be considered up on such stands. If the Digambara texts are followed, the aştamangalas would appear on the middle circular terrace of the three-tiered central pedestal. Thus, counting the four 'arches' as part of the gandhakuți, this would put the auspicious signs on the next level.
Mandala-type āyāgapațas such as fig. 1 further aid a threedimensional interpretation by showing in their border columns topped by a wheel or animal. Similar columns, more easily read as towering high above the ground, are seen at either side of a stūpa in two other Jaina reliefs from Mathurā." This close relationship of such columns with a stūpa could also be seen in Buddhism even somewhat earlier. It is known that the developed version of the Digambara samavasaraṇa has four mānastambhas, or pride pillars, one at each of its four outermost gates. Since the stūpa plaques are depicted frontally, and the Jina-centered āvāgapaļas combine frontality with a bird's-eye perspective, the columns may be considered as two of four, each standing at the four main directions. The fact that they appear similarly both on what I shall call 'proto-samavasarana' plaques and on stūpa depictions could indicate a transitional period in Jaina iconography.
In the ground-plan of a Digambara samavasaraņa the different bhūmi, shown separately by lines in fig. 5, are meant to be read as ever rising levels , giving the entire structure the effect of a sacred mountain. This is also the effect meant in the stūpa, whose pradakșiņa paths are delineated by vedikās, except for the last, the harmikā, which houses the sacred space at the top. In his detailed description of the Digambara samavasaraņa, Ramachandran points out that there is a subtle differentiation between the various structures dividing each bhūmi. Five of the structures, including the one encircling the inner (and therefore topmost) pedestal are called 'vedikā, or fences, while the other
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