Studies in Jaina Art

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

Page 57

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STUDIES IN JAINA ART
sacrifice is the Caitya.yajña. Oldenburg thinks that this rite was not purely symbolical. 1 The bali is to be offered to Caitya where Caitya may stand for a shrine or an icon in the shrine. And the Grhya Sutra further says that if the Caitya is at a distant place, the offering is to be made through a leaf messenger. Thus as noted by Dikshitar, "caitya was no more yajña-sthāna...... From the time of Advalâyana onwards we find the use of the application of the term. caitya extended. There is a transition from Agni-cityas to Anagni-cityas, or in other words from a fire cult to a fireless cult. "2 But the same Grhya sūtra has also used caitya in the sense of yajña-sthāna in "... ." Thus चैत्ययूपं the text represents a stage of transition in the (meaning of) the word Caitya. The Caitya-yajña is of course a sacrifice performed as a Vedic ritual. But who were the deities of the Caityas to whom bali was offered? Nārāyaṇa, the commentator cites the names of Sankara, Pasupati, Arya, Jyesthä etc. but they might have been any deities. It is not unlikely that some of these Caityas were sanctuaries dedicated to such deities as Rudra, Skanda, Vaiśramana, Mukunda, Näga, Yakşa, Indra and others whose festivals, caityas etc. are often referred to in the Jaina canons. Was it an attempt to give Vedic colour to the worship which had penetrated into the Aryan folks from the Dravidian masses? The cults of the phallus, and of the mother-goddesses, Nāgas, Yakṣas and other nature spirits are probably elements of Dravidian origin and in the words of Dr. Coomaraswamy," the shift from abstract symbolism to anthropomorphic iconography in the period of theistic and bhakti development, marks a final victory of the conquered over the conquerors. See, Dikshitar, op. cit., p. 445; also see, Caitya-Vada-Samikṣā where Pt. Hamsaraja Shastri has discussed this passage with extracts from commentaries of Nārāyaṇa and Haradatta.
Dikshitar, op. cit., p. 445.
• Asvalayana Grhya Sūtra, 3. 6. 8. cf. the commentaries:
नारायणीय वृत्तिः अभिचयनस्थं यूपं स्पृष्ट्वा ।
हरिदत्ताचार्यः -- चित्योऽग्निः तत्र भवो यूपश्चैत्यः ।
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Also cf. used in a similar sense in Mahabharata, XIV. 10-32ततः संवर्तश्चैत्यगतो महात्मा, यथा वह्निः प्रज्वलितो द्वितीयः ।
zelgederema, tudna, germi taka, grafter: 11
Also, चैत्ययूपांकिता भूमिर्यस्येयं सवनाकरा । MBH. . . 2.229 is explained by a comm, as चित्ये चयनवति ऋती विहिता बैत्यास्ते च ते यूपाथ तैरंकिताः ।
A reading of Kanvaśākhiya Satapatha Brāhmaṇa, 13-4.3.1, noted by Pandit Harisarāja, is चेत्ये होवाच ब्रह्मा ।
Näyādhammakahão, II. 40. pp. 49 f.; I. 25. p. 23; Acaränga Saira (Agamodaya Samiti ed.), 2. I. 1. 2. sü. 12, p. 328.