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SIDELIGHTS ON THE LIFE-TIME SANDALWOOD IMAGE OF MAHẬVÎRA*
-U. P. Shah
In the first number of this Journal, while discussing ‘A Unique Jaina Image of Jivantasvami,' the present writer had given in detail a tradition about a sandalwood image of Mahâvîra, carved in his life-time and therefore worshipped as Jivanta- or Jivita- svami.' The account, given at length by the veteran Jaina scholiast Hemacandracarya, is supported by earlier traditions of the Vasudevahindi (c. 500 A.D.), Avasyaka-Curni of Jinadasa (733 V.S.-676 A.D.) and the Avasyaka-tika of Haribhadra suri (c. 700 A.D.). The archeological evidence of the Akota bronze of Jivantasvami, assignable to c. middle sixth century A.D., showed that the literary evidence was not wholly unreliable and that a traditional belief in the life-time sandalwood image of Mahâvîra did exist in the fifth century A.D. and was possibly based on a much older tradition.
It is interesting to note that certain parallels to the Jaina accounts of the sandalwood image, King Uddayana and the capital of Sauvira buried under a sandstorm, exist in Buddhist traditions. In his account of a city called Pima (Pi-mo), in the district of Khotan, the Chinese traveller Hiuen-Tsang writes : “Here there is a figure of Buddha in a standing position made of sandalwood. The figure is about twenty feet high. It works many miracles and reflects constantly a mild light-This is what the natives say: This image in old days when Buddha was alive was made by Uddayana (Uto-yen-na), king of Kausambi (Kiao-shang-mi). When Buddha left the world, it mounted of its own accord into the air and came to
* Journal of the Oriental Research, Vol. 50/4, 1981.
