Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

Author(s): Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Mumbai
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 933

404 : SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
Vijayaghosa took him to be a mendicant. A dialogue ensued in which Vijayaghosa was defeated and finally became a Jaina monk.
The illustration depicts certain episodes from the story.. On the top left, the Brāhmaṇa Jayaghoṣa is shown entering the city of Banaras by one of its gates. The inhabitants of Banaras are represented by two women and a man. In the foreground is represented the holy river Gangă in which a Brāhmaṇa is taking his bath; three vultures representing the proximity of a cremation ground are seen on the bank of the river. A Jaina monk appears in one of the compartments. Red and ultramarine background; the figures are painted in gold; the river is represented in basket pattern on gold ground. Size : 10.5 x 9.5 cm.
(Colour plate V, Fig. VII) Folio 43 B: The Parable of the Bull.
Just as a bull runs away or refuses to move, similarly the bad disciple of a monk, when yoked to the cart of law, are prone to break the law through lack of mental discipline.
In the lower panel a cart-driver is driving a bull which refuses to move in the upper panel a Jaina monk is seated, two others are hurrying away from him.
In the whole manuscript, the figures are painted in gold on which the body contour is drawn in ochre. Ultramarine and red background is covered with white and golden flowers. Size : 10.6 x 8.5 cm.
(Fig. 23)
GROUP V Upadeśamālă with Bālāvabodha from the collections of the Bhandara of Devasano Pado, Ahmedabad.
Amongst the old Jaina diadectic (Prakaraņa) texts is included an ancient popular work called Upadeśamālā, containing 541 gáthás, composed by Dharmadāsagani whos date is unknown but whom several commentators have regarded as one of the pupils of Mahāvira himself. . But the text, on account of the form of the Prakrit language used therein as also because of the fact that later monks like Arya Vajra (c. 50 B. C. or c. 50 A. D.) are mentioned, seems to have been composed between c. the 5th and the 6th centuries A. D. Whatever the age, it is quite certain that the text has been held in high esteem for a long time by the Svetām bara sect of Jainism. Several texts were composed after the model of the original and several commentaries (bālāvabodhas) etc. written on it prove beyond doubt the popularity of this text.