Studies in Jaina Art

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

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STUDIES IN JAINA ART
supports this inference. For a long time worship of the Buddha's human form was regarded as something prohibited by Buddha himself.
But even in Jaina worship, introduction of the Jina Image seems to be a somewhat later development, and may be assigned to the century following the nirvana of Mahavira. No Jaina Agama refers to shrines dedicated to any of the 24 Tirthankaras. Mahāvīra is never reprted to have visited or stayed in any Jaina shrine. He stayed in Caity as which commentators unanimously explain as Yakṣa--ayatanas.
Pārsvanatha, who lived 250 years before the nirvana of Mahāvīra, is acknowledged as a historical figure and his followers existed in the age of Mahavira and a few centuries following him. Mahavira's parents are reported to be followers of Pärsvanatha. But nowhere in the Agamas do we hear of anybody visiting the shrine of Pärśvanatha or any other Jina. Only once or twice in the Bhagavati Sūtra1 and once in the Upāsakadaśānga, we come across a general reference to Arhat Caitya which passages may or may not be genuine and old.
Hence we are forced to believe that at least upto the beginning of fourth century B.C. idol worship did not become popular amongst the Jainas. But the highly polished mutilated torso of a Jina Image obtained from Lohānipur near Patna shows that at least in the third century B.C. or slightly earlier, worship of the Jina Image had started.
Against this, we have the evidence of stock descriptions of Sasvatapratimas in the Jaina Agamas (like the Rayapasenaiya, Sthānanga and the Jiväjivābhigama sutra) or the reference to the worship of Jina-images by Draupadi in the Jñātā dharmakatha which would suggest that idol worship existed in Jainism from the age of Mahavira or his gapadharas. But the view does not seem to be free from doubts since these passages might have been composed in a somewhat later age. Again, all throughout the Jaina Āgamas we find references to the worship of Indra, Rudra, Skanda, Vasudeva, Yakşa Bhuta, Naga, tree, etc. which suggest that these were amongst the most popular deities worshipped by the masses who are not reported to have visited any shrines of Tirthankaras.
Mahavira stayed in Yakşa shrines. Naturally he stayed in places where masses used to gather in large numbers and where he could have the desired type of audience. In other words he obtained his following not from people who
1 Bhagavati Sūtra with Abhayadeva's comm., (Agamodaya Samiti's ed.), 3. 2. Sû. 145, Vol. I. p. 75.
* Uvasagadasão (Atmananda Sabhã ed.), p. 14.
Nayadhammakahão (ed. N. V. Vaidya, Poona, 1940), XVI, 124, p. 181.