Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

Page 447

JINA IMAGES IN THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM, KHAJURĀHO 419
The representation of jaṭā-jūța over the head of Rṣabhanatha, despite the fact that no work prescribes jaṭā-jūta, inidcates some definite bearing of the Siva-iconography on that of Rṣabhanātha. Such an attempt was made from the early mediaeval period onwards. The analogy between Rṣabhanatha and Siva may also be gathered from several Hindu works alluding to Rṣabhanātha (Vrsabha) as a great yogi. Round the head is an aureole with a corolla in the centre, a row of lotus petals, a band filled with dotted and linear designs and a stellate cut circle border. The image can be assigned to the first half of the eleventh century.
Rṣabhanatha, Seated:
(Acc. No. 1694; 42" X 25", Fig. 3)
Jina is seated on an ornate cushion placed on a pedestal supported by pilasters, now lost. Below the dharmacakra is carved a very small figure of bull, which, however, was confused with goat and the image was thus labelled in the museum as that of Kunthunatha, the seventeenth Jina. The presence of the usual attendant yakṣa-yakṣi figures, namely Sarvānubhūti and Cakreśvari, accompanying Rṣabhanatha also warrants our identification. At each extremity of the pedestal is seated a devotee with folded hands, the figure to left being that of a female. Above these figures are carved the figures of yakṣa and yakṣi, sheltered in pillared niches. The four-armed yaksi to left rides on garuḍa, (represented in human form and supporting her feet) and holds discs in upper pair of arms, while her lower right and left arms show respectively the varada-mudra and a conch. The two-armed yakṣa of the corresponding side, though not possessing bull face just as several other figures do, shows the same attributes as usually carried by the two-armed figures of the Yakṣa associated with Rṣabhanatha at Khajuraho. The paksa betrays the abhaya-mudrā and a mongoose-skin purse respectively in his right and left hands. Above these yakṣa-yakṣi figures there appears, on either 1. Consult Editorial Note, Adipurāņa of Jinasena op. cit. pp. 1-14; Manjula, Sadhvi, "The Identity of Rṣabha and Siva", Jaina Journal, Vol. II, No. 3, Jan. 1968, pp. 133-37,
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