Studies in Jaina Art

Author(s): Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 34

A BRIEF SURVEY OF JAINA ART IN THE NORTH
a type of figures of a royal pair sitting under a tree surmounted by a miniature Jina and showing a child on the lady's lap. Such sculptures (figs. 45, 46), common to most of the Digambara sites in Central India, U. P. and Bihar, and dating from c. 900-1200 A. D., are analogous to the Buddhist pair or Jambhala and Hārīti. A study of various specimens from these sites shows that a group of them at least represented the Mother and Father of various Jinas.
In the West, the mediæval period witnessed increased building activity amongst Jainas under the patronage of the Parmāras of Mālvā and Caulukyas of Gujarat. Vimala sāha, a minister of Solanki court, built a magnificent temple at Delwādā, Mt. Ābu in V.S. 1088. A temple of extraordinary beauty, it shows the extent to which marble could be finely chiselled and an example where exumberance could be beauty.1 Human faces do not radiate the spiritual bliss and divine glory of inner consciousness but the loss is largely repaid by the richness and beauty of decoration and fine carving. The temple consists of mülagarbhagyha (shrine), a gūdhamandapa (adjoining hall ), a smaller mandapa (navacoki), a larger hall (rangamandapa), a circumambulatory path (Bhamati ) and in the court-yard a group of devakulikās (smaller shrines ) with a pillared corridor in front. The shrine is on a higher level than the main hall. The dome of the latter, with an exquisitely wrought huge lotus pendant hanging from it (fig. 49), rests on eight stilted pillars arranged in an octagon, and rises in concentric circles of various decorative motifs. Sixteen brackets, apparently without any architectural value, show figures of sixteen Tantric goddesses called Mahāvidyās of unique iconographic value (cf. Fig. 50 representing Prajñapti). Between pillars of the octagon are toraņas while there are a number of free standing pillars in the hall. The Mandapa however was erected by Přthvipāla, a minister of Kumārapāla. All available space in the ceilings, walls, door-frames or pillars is utilised in presenting scenes from Jaina mythology, different gods and goddesses (cf. Fig. 54 representing the Mahavidyā, called Vajránkusi) or designs which are veritable dreams of beauty. Fig. 55 is a kicaka on one of the pillar-brackets.
A second shrine at Delvädā, adjoining Vimalavasahi, built two centuries later by Tejpāla and Vastupāla on a plan similar to the one just described, is
1 Coomaraswamy. HITA., pp. III f. Brown, Percy, op. cit., 142 f, pl. xciv. For a descriptive guide to all the Jaina shrines at Delvādā and Acaleśvara on Mt. Ābu, see Holy Abu, by Muni Jayantavijaya, translated by U. P. Shah, published (with illustrations ) by Yaśovijaya Jaina Granthamälā, Bhāvnagar, April, 1954.
As evidenced by a Prasasti verse from Mallinātha caritra and Candraprabhacaritra (Ms., Patan), composed by Haribhadra Sûri, a contemporary of Pithvipāla. Also see Introduction to Holy Abu by Shah, U.P.