Studies in Jaina Art

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

Page 61

STUDIES IN JAINA ART
It seems that a sacred tree demarcated for worship was called a caitya-tree when it had a platform or a railing round the stem, something piled-up and marking it as a holy object.
In Buddhist literature, Cetiya came to be generally used in the sense of a hallow, a sacred-symbol or cult-object but not exclusively as a funeral relic. In the Kalingabodhi-Jätaka (J. iv. 228 ), Buddha asks how many kinds of hallows ( cetiya ) there are? Three, says, Ananda, with implied reference to contemporary non-Buddhist usage, "namely, those of the body (śāriraka), those of association (päribhogaka) and those prescribed (uddeśika ).” The Buddha rejects the śäriraka and the uddeśika on different grounds and recommends that "only a Mahābodhi-rukkha, Great-Wisdom-Tree, that has been associated with a Buddha is fit to be a cetiya, whether the Buddha be still living, or Absolutively Extinguished.” 2 This occurs also in the Mahābodhi-vamsa (PTS. ed., p. 59). Commenting on this passage, Dr. Coomaraswamy writes, “a cetiya, as appears from the present text and elsewhere, is not primarily a building, but any object made use of as a sacred symbol or cult-object. A shrine in the sense of a "temple" is a cetiya gyha." 3 But it is true that the tree and the symbols like the wheel, the lotus etc.) had older than Buddhist application as suggested by Dr. Coomaraswamy, for had not Sujātā indeed mistaken the Boddhisattva for a rukkha-devatā ?
The Khuddakapātha Atthakathā (PTS. ed., 1915, p. 222) explains uddisaka-cetiyam as Buddha-patimā.
In the Lalitavistara of the Buddhists we find a Cetiya erected at the spot from which Chandaka returned with Buddha's ornaments. It was called Chandaka-nivartana-Caitya. Buddha's cūļā (hair ) was worshipped by Trāyastrimsa gods who erected a caitya in its honour. Caitya of course was a pre-Buddha institution. We read in the Mahāparinibbāna sutta that Buddha spoke of the efficiency of erecting dhātu-caityas, and himself visited caityas like Udena, Gotama, Sattambaka etc. 5 The Digha Nikāya shows that Buddha lived at the Ananda-cetiya in Bhojanagara. 6
Let us now turn to the Jaina canoncial literature. The Ācārănga Sūtra refers to festivals in honour of Ceiyas ( 749 ) along with those ( in honour )
1 The Jaina Samavāyānga sūtra, sū. 156, refers to the caitya-vřkşas of the 24 Tirthankaras. Abhayadeva commenting on the word writes :- 44a1बद्धपीठवृक्षाः, येषामधः केवलान्युत्पन्नानि-इति.
2 Also see, Coomaraswamy, Elements of Buddhist Iconography, pp. 3-7 3 Ibid, p. 63. 4 Lalitavistara, adhyāya 15, pp. 277-278. 5 Mahāparinibbāna-sutta, Chp. III. 36-47. & Digha Nikāya, II. p. 123.