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104
Hampa Nagarajaiah
Nirgrantha
and as its consequence the setting up of their images in Karnataka. For the Gangas, the temple of Pārśva was their Patta-jinālaya, the crown temple'. My recent research has convinced me that the earliest of the Ganga temples on the Mandali Hill, built by Madhava-Konganivarmā in C. E. 350, at the instance of Simhanandi-ācārya, was a temple to Jina-Pārśva and the same temple-complex contained a temple for Padmavati [EC. VII-I (BLR) Sh. b. 1060; ibid., Sh. 4. 1121-22]. The Gangas and the Kadambas of Banavāsi popularised the founding of temples to Pārśva and Padmāvati. According to the epigraphical and literary evidence, the worship of Padmāvati had gathered momentum and had reached its peak in the medieval period. The ruling-sections were proud of recognising themselves as Padmavati-Devilabdha-vara-prasāda. Padmāvati temples were flocked by devotees, because she was the goddess who would respond to their desires, abhista-vara-pradāyini. For the sculptures, the special esteem in which Arhat-Pārsva was held, provided greater scope for his temples and hence for the attendant figures of Padmavati and
Dharana. 40. An utter indifference toward warding off of the terrible aspect of the terrible
asura is the central significance of this classic iconography/iconology of JinaPārsva meditating in kayotsarga posture. In other words, the awesome divinity is explicable through the puranic origin that portrays him as the one who sustained the asuropasarga without malice; his unshakable neutrality generates instant
reverence. Jina Pärśva is an embodiment of the primordial concept of kāyotsarga, giving verbal expression to vāsi-candana-kappa (vāsi-candana-kalpa), a must virtue to a mahāvratin, a great sage. It is said in the Avassaya-nijjutti (gāthā, 1548) (c. A. D. 525):
Väsī-candana-kappo jo marañe jīvië ya samasanno
dehe ya apadibaddho kāvussaggo havai tassa || A monk observing kāyotsarga of excellence will be like vasi-candana-kalpa; he considers. life and death as equal and he is devoid of any attachment to human body. Haribhadra-sūri (c. 3rd quarter of the 8th century) while giving gloss of this gāthā, quotes a supportive gathā :
Jo candanena bāhum alimpi vāsiņā ya taccheyi
Sandhuņai jo va nindayi maharisiņo tattha samabhāva || Some may smear candana (sandle) to the arms, some may etch the arm with an adze; some may praise and others may abuse; albeit, the maharsi, a great sage, would consider both equal. Jina-Pārśva regarded both Dharņendra and the asura (Kamatha/ Sambara) as equal; He neither blessed nor cursed, and exactly that is the quintessence of Nirgrantha philosophy expounded by the Arhats.
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