Studies in Jaina Art

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

Page 68

A BRIEF SURVEY OF JAINA ART IN THE NORTH
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as Caitya or Caity-stūpa. A sacred tree with a platform erected at base (piled-up) or enclosed in a railing, being an object of worship, came to be called a Caitya or Caitya-vşkşa. Thus all sacred objects and places of worship came to be called Caityas. The idol or the cult-object worshipped in such a shrine also gradually came to be called a Caitya. The processes seems to be just the reverse of what has been imagined by the Jaina commentators in their explanation of the word Caitya, in the passage cited above.
This is only tracing the origin and development of the term Caitya and not necessarily of the objects to which it was applied. It must however be remembered that the four-sided Daiva or the round Asura Prācya smaśānas or funeral mounds referred to by the Satapatha, were not mentioned as Caityas or Caitya-stūpas in the Satapatha though later known as such and though their worship existed from very early times.
It would be a mistake to suppose, as has been done by Dikshitar and others that Cetiya in the Buddhist passages of the Mahāparinibbāna sutta 1 and the Digha Nikāya,” referred to funeral mounds or Stūpas only of Udena, Sattambaka and others. The Bahuputtikā.cetiyam in the Mahāparinibbāna sutta is really identical with the caitya of the same name at Viśālā (Vaisali ) and Mithilā mentioned in the Jaina Bhagavati and the Vipāka sūtras. The Bahuputrikā Caitya was dedicated to a goddess of the name who was a prototype of the later Buddhist Hārīti. Some of these Buddhist Cetiyas were therefore similar to the Purņabhadra Caitya described in the Aupapātika sūtra. Jaina commentators have rightly called it a Yakşa-āyatana since Pürņabhadra and Māņibhadra are well-known as ancient Yakşas.
The Pūrņabhadra Caitya was in the udyāna or park called Amraśālavana, situated to the N. E. of the city of Campa. It was very old in age (cirátita ) recognised by people of old, ancient (porāņa ), famous, praised everywhere, and jñāta (? of the Jñātr-people?). It was decorated with an umbrella (or umbrellas ), banners, bells, flags, atipatākas (flags surmounted on flags), whisks or brushes of peacock-feathers (lomahatthaga ) and having a railing (vitardikavedikā, according to Abhayadeva, which would also mean, containing a sacrificial altar'), its inside floor was coated with cow-dug and the wallsurfaces were polished by rubbing with cowries; it bore palm-impressions in redgiśīrṣa or dardara-sandal, was adorned with candana ghațas ( auspicious jars ), and on its entrance-doors were toranas (arches ) with candana-ghața decorations. It was sprinkled all over with perfumed water and garlands were hung;
Mahäparinibbāna Sutta, Chap. III. secs. 36-47. Also, Fleet's article in J. R. A. S., (1906), pp. 657 ff; Law B, C., History of Pali Literature, p. 100
2 Digha Nikāya, II. p. 113. For a discussion on the Cetiyas of Buddhist Literature, see, Law, B. C., Geography of Early Buddhism, appendix.