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94
STUDIES IN JAINA ART
of Pārsvanātha. 1 The pairs of animals are not represented. ?
The fresco paintings of Sittannavāsal, assigned to the Age of Mahendravarman I, contain in the ceiling, a scene of a big lotus pond with animals such as elephants and bulls, birds, and fishes frolicking about and men gathering lotus flowers, which has been identified by Ramacandran, as the Khātikābhūmi or the tank region with the faithful (bhavyas ) pleasing themselves by gathering lotus-flowers. 3
The wall and ceiling paintings at Tirumalai, North Arcot district (c. IIth Cent. A. D.) also contain a representation of the samavasaraña structure in the usual form of a wheel, the painting being of less artistic merit.
Ramacandran has described at length the painting of a samavasaraṇa in the Vardhamāna temple at Jina-kāñci, which need not be reproduced here.5
Representations of samavasaraņas are available in reliefs showing lives of different Jinas, an example of it from the life of Sāntinātha, in a ceiling in the Vimala Vasahi, ( Ābu) Bhāva No. 19 is noteworthy. Loose sculptures, mostly circular, showing three ramparts, one above the other, surmounted by a square pavilion showing the Jina-sitting on each side are also obtained, a beautiful example of which from the above temple (cell. 20 ) has been discussed by Dr. D. R. Bhandarkar. A big sized beautifui bronze structure of a similar plan, installed in the eleventh century, brought from a shrine in Mārwār and now in a
Jaina shrine at Surat is illustrated here in fig. 76. Examples of such loose stone or metal sculptures and reliefs are numerous and scattered in Jaina shrines all over India. The upper part of a samavasarana, the pavilion or the Gandhakuți with the Jina facing each side has been a subject of representation by itself and receives
Another miniature showing a square Samavasarana, of Mahāvira, from a ms. of the Sthānānga Sūtra, is illustrated by Brown, A Ms. of the Sthānānga Sülra illustrated in the Early W. Indian Style, New Indian Antiquary, Vol. 1, No. 2. ( May 1938) pp. 127 ff, fig. 2.
For other miniatures of Samavasaraņas, see Jaina Citrakalpadruma, figs. 72, 74, 244. Also, Coomaraswamy, Catalogue, Vol. IV.
3 Indian Antiquary, Vol. LI, pp. 45-7; Jaina Miniature Paintings In Il'estern India, pp. io ff, fig 1-2.
4 Ramacandran, Tiruparuttikunyam and its Temples, p. 62, n. 1, Smith & Codrington, History of l'ine Arts, p. 344.
5 Ibid., pl. XVI, painting No. 36, and pp. 104 ff. pp. 124 ff. pls. XIX ff. pp. 130 ff. pls. XXIII, XXIV, etc.
8 Ābu, (Guj. ed. ), Vol. I. pp. 78 f and illustration at the end; also Bhāva 15, p. 74 and plate at the end represents the life-story of some other Jina, with samavasaraņa in the centre.
7 Ind. Ant., Vol. XL, , pp. 125 ff, and plate. See Holy Abu, Figure, 21.
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