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SYMBOL WORSHIP IN JAINISM
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first saw inages of the four Jinas beginning with Sambhava, and worshipped them. At the West-entrance he worshipped the eight Tirthankaras beginning with Supārsva, entering by the North gate he could worship the ten Jinas beginning with Dharmanātha. From the Eastern doorway of the shrine, he worshipped the first two Jinas, Rşabha and Ajitanātha.
Thus it will be seen that the Simhanişadya is a Caumukha shrine with four doorways and having in the centre a platform on which the Jinas are represented in the order described above and worshipped by Gautama. In Svetāmbara Jaina temples, sometimes, a cell is dedicated to this Aştā pada represented in the way shown above. A representation of Aștāpada of this type, with the Gautama shown climbing, and the tāpasas on the way, is seen in a shrine on the mount Satruñjaya in Saurāṣtra. Smaller representations, only of the Jinas on four sides of a pitha, arranged in the above order, are more common, one such may be seen in a Jaina shrine at Surat. All these are later mediaeval representations while earlier ones are not traced hitherto though it may be inferred that Citra-pațas of the tirthas like Satruñjaya and Aștāpada might have been in use even before, since the avacūri on samavasarana-stava refers at least to the pațas of the samavasaraṇa structure.
The Digambara sect also believes that Rşabha obtained Nirvāṇa on this mountain and that Bharata erected a memorial shrine on the cremation ground. But such representations-plaques, paintings or sculptures--are not yet traced, though a proper search is likely to disclose some kind of representation of the Aștāpada amongst the Digambaras.
Similarly, representations of Sammeta-Sikhara are also worshipped in Jaina shrines, a famous example of which is available in the triple-Jaina shrine built by Vastupala-Tejapāla on Mount Girnār. Such representations are known as 'avatāra' or 'uddhāra' of a particular tirtha in Svetambara Jaina terminology. A small plaque, representing "avatāra" of the two tirthas of Satruñjaya and Girnār, now in worship in a shrine at Varkhāņā in Rājasthān, is illustrated in figure 59.
Representations of Panca-Meru mountains of different dvipas, showing a Siddhāyatana (suggested by a four-fold Jina image) on each tier, one above the other (in five tiers ) and surmounted by a finial, are more common amongst the Digambaras. One such Panca-Meru is also obtained in a Svetānbara shrine, in the Hastiśālā of the Lūņa.Vasahi Mt. Ābu. The five Merus are Sudarsana in the midst of Jambudvipa, Vijaya in eastern Dhātakikhanda-dvipa, Acala in
1 Astăpada-giri-kalpa, by Jinaprabha sūri, pub, in the Vividha-Tirthakalpa, pp. 91-93. Also see, Ibid., p. 31 for an Astāpadamahātirthakalpa by Dharmaghoșa sūri. Abhidhāna-Rajendra-Kośa, Vol. I on 19€.
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