Jinamanjari 2002 04 No 25

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

Page 15

and the torso. The armi position has been described as emphasizing the absolute clarity and isolation of the jina, or enlightened hero; but in popular tradition the posture is interpreted in terms of thc Jairi ideology of ahimsa or non-violence, in which the posture is understood as involving an attempt to harm no microscopic beings accidentally, just by the gross movements of one's body. The tirthankara stands motionless so as to avoid stepping on anything, and holds his arms slightly out so nothing can be crushed as his arms press or brush or bump against his sides.
The figure represents a celibate who by stationary standing hopes to remove himself from both ends of the process of birth-anddeath. He will neither beget new life nor contribute to the destruction of already existent lives. In pursuit of this ideal he withdraws himself completely from participation in the life-world of ordinary humans, their nccds and ambitions. Zimmer refcrs at one moment to "the characteristic Jaina rigidity and at another to "the crystalline stasis of absolute perfection." – "These absolutely perfected beings,” he goes on, "have purged themselves of all idiosyncrasies.” 22 Still, they do participate at times in the appropriation of fertility imagery into enlightenment doctrine. The gigantic tirthankara at Sravana Belagola, for example, is shown entwined by vines (in reference to the story of the tirthankara, Gommata). The motif points back to two Bronze Age Mesopotamian fertility icons: first, the god entwined by serpents, and second, the god who is the tree, or who belongs somehow to the tree. In Sumerian iconography both iconographs relate especially to the cult of Ningizzida.
Conclusion
This brief incursion into Jain iconography makes no claim to completeness, but attempts to indicate some paths of comparison that may seem to shed light on the inner meaning of the icons. In regarding the iconography only from outside I have had to neglect many details that might be more meaningful to a Jain devotee than the external comparisons mentioned here. This brief sketch of some of the possible approaches to a comparative study of Jain iconography is not meant in the least to diminish the reality that these icons have to one who regards them from inside the tradition rather than outside. Someday this brief sketch may be enlarged into a fuller exposition of the subject, which would attempt to present both the inside and the outside perspectives as complementary to one another.
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