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STUDIES IN JAINA ART
tains. These mountains agian have thirty-two Śaśvata-Jinalayas on them. This makes a total of fifty-two such Eternal Temples of the Arhats on the Nandiśvara-dvipa. Here and elsewhere on the Nandiśvara.dvipa Indra and other gods celebrate cight-days' festival every year on different holy (parva) days.
Works on cosmography like the Laghukşetrasamäsa of Ratnasekhara expressly state that there are fifty-two śāśvata-Caityālayas, thirteen in each of the four directions, on the Nandiśvara-dvipa. A diagrammatic representation of it generally shows in a circle, a group of thirteen miniature shrines in each direction, with a mountain in the centre. This does not seem to be a faithful representation of the description obtained in works on cosmography since the central mountain also has śāśvata-Jināla yas on it.
In various temples and palaces of the Nandiśvara-dvipa, gods together with their retinue, celebrate the Astāhnika-mahotsava (eight-days' festival) on holy days of the holy Arhats. After celebrating the Kalyanaka-ceremony (or the festival of any of the five chief events in the life of every Jina) gods retire to this dvipa, worship the caityas thereon and then return to their respective abodes.
Plaques or pațas representing the 52 shrines on the Nandiśvara are very popular amongst both the sects. The Digambaras represent 52 small figures of the Jinas (suggesting 52 shrines) on a four-tiered platform or in a miniature shrine, both the types being four-faced, as illustrated by T. N. Ramchandran in his Tiruparuttikuņram and its Temples, pl. xxxi. figs. 3-4, p. 181. The Svetambaras represent 52 miniature shrines in four groups of thirteen each, carved in relief on a stone plaque, and arranged in different artistic ways. A beautiful Śvetāmbara plaque worshipped in the famous Caumukha shrine at Rāṇakpur is illustrated in Fig. 89 (also see, JISOA., Vol. IX. (1941), pl. V, p. 48). Here the Jinālayas are grouped in a beautiful geometric pattern while the intervening spaces at four ends are filled with representations of
1 Cf. an IUTATUT 23 IT unaftuzi एंदिसरि बावन्ना चउ कुंडलि रूअगि चत्तारि ॥२५८ ॥
Laghu-Kşetrasamāsa, pp. 418 ff. 2 Also see, Jivājivābhigama sutra, 3.2. sū. 183, pp. 356 for an early account of the Nandiśvara-dvipa.
3 Cf. Avaśyaka Cūrni, p. 151 ; Jambudvipa-prajñapti, I. 2. sū. 33, p. 158; Trişașți. I, op. cit., pp. 130 f.; Ramachandran, op. cit., p. 181. Cf. :--Tegalgfapag saad &g 1
#ar: qa qai fiatay ang | Harivansa, p. 124, v. 680.
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