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Aparigraha as Reflected in Jaina Art : 87 and fourteen ratnas-jewels. Among these were the sword, cakra, horse, elephant, maņi and senāpati or commandership as cakravartin. The detailed story of the life of Bharata and his clash with his brother Bāhubalī, and the final change of heart is recounted in the Svetāmbara and Digambara literature of the early medieval times. Bharata began to be depicted in plastic art from the tenth century AD onwards. At Svetāmbara Jain sites, he appears only in the narrative panels, in the scenes of fierce fight between the brothers. These instances are found mainly in the eleventh century Sāntinātha Temple at Kumbhariya in Gujarat and in the Mount Abu Vimala Vasahi of the twelfth century AD in Rajasthan. It may be noted here that Bharata was invoked and
eld in high veneration only when he renounced material possession and took to the path of austerity, performing rigorous penance, to attain the omniscience or Kevalajñāna. As all the Tīrthankara and salākāpuruṣas or Great men performed tapas in the kāyotsarga mudrā, so also did Bharata. One day when Bharata looked into mirror, the whole futility of the worldly possessions and lusts dawned on him and atonce he decided to quit the world and seek kevalajñāna. When Indra (Šakra) came to know of this, he paid homage to Bharata. The cakravartin like the Tīrthankaras or Great men, plucked out all his hair in five fistfuls and performed tapas, finally to attain omniscience. The Mahāpurāņa clearly states that Bharata, prior to renunciation, received the homage of only kings but after renunciation, he attained lordship over the three worlds and was worshipped even by the celestial Indras. In the sculptures, Bharata is always portrayed as standing in the kāyotsarga mudrā and absorbed in tapas. As he renounced all material possession, including the navanidhis and the fourteen jewels before retiring to the forest for tapas, he is shown without any royal insignia or ornaments on his person. The figures of the nine treasures and fourteen jewels possessed and then renounced by Bharata as cakravartin are depicted on the pedestal. The image of Bharata can be distinguished from that of the Tīrthankaras mainly by the mark of the navanidhis and fourteen ratnas presented in the composition.
