Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

Author(s): Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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Jainism in Eastern India
Like the Buddhists the Jainas too had their stūpas with the usual architectural decorations; but these architectural specimens are very few in eastern India. The worship of the foot-prints of tīrthankaras and preceptors is quite in vogue with the Jainas; their places of pilgrimage like Paresnath Hill in Bihar are all marked with them. The worship of idols is a part and parcel of Jainism, almost from the beginning. The Jaina temples contain statues of tirthankaras, etc., at times more than one. Digambaras worship nude images; the question of nudity does not arise if the statues are in a seated posture, the idols as such have no dress and decorations, shown in carving; however, the Svetāmbaras, now-adays, decorate them. Both the sects worshipped the tirthařkaras and many other gods and goddesses. The Jaina sculptures belonging to the period from AD 600 to 1000 mostly contain the figures of the tirthankaras with the attendants, Sarasvati, Ambikā, Yaksas, Yaksinis, and the Dikpälas. The introduction of the twenty-four Yaksas and Yakşiņis as attendant of the tirthankaras was a new development to Jaina iconography in the eighth-ninth century AD.
Later on, the nine planets on two sides of a tirthankara came to be figured. The latter practice was first developed in the eastern school of medieval art.111
We have also the figures of the mothers of the twenty-four Jinas each with a child on her lap. All these sculptures are mostly in bronze or stone. On the basis of a study of these Jaina icons U.P. Shah tries to find out the geographical distribution of both the sects;
"In the period, the Jainas, especially the Digambaras, had strongholds in the whole of Central India, while in the west the Svetāmbaras were growing stronger. South of Bhrgukaccha (Broach), the Digambaras had an establishment at Navasari while in the Khandesh, M.P., and the Deccan, the Svetāmbaras were gradually diminishing in number. In the east, in Bihar and Orissa, Digambara Jainism was still popular whereas in Bengal it was already on the decline.":112
Lack of royal patronage in the later part of our period may also be conside: ed as one of the reasons for the decline of Jainism in this part of India. Of course, the discovery of a large number of archaeological remnants of the Jainas in eastern India in the eighth-ninth centuries onwards demonstrates the revival of the faith for the time being but it did not last long. It may not be