Studies in Jaina Art

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

Page 74

A BRIEF SURVEY OF JAINA ART IN THE NORTH
61
Besnagar, discovered by Cunningham, was mounted on a pillar in front a shrine of Vaiśramana-Kubera, 1 The same practice was adopted by the Jainas, at least in another way. The Ayaga pața dedicated by Siha Vāņika ( now in Lucknow Museum), shows a pillar surmounted by a dharma-cakra and another surmounted by an elephant. Several pedestals of sculptures from the Kankäli tilā also show the worship of a Dharma-cakra mounted on a pillar.
Again, the Kahaon pillar with an inscription of the Gupta-age shows four Jinas on four sides at top, and one at its base. 3 Such figures are usually enshrined in a square pavilion on top open on four sides. This practice remains popular even to this day amongst the Digambaras. Ati Deogarh are certain pillars ( fig. 56 ) which show variations in this Mānastambha. Sometimes, beside the four figures on top, four figures of minor deities--yaksiņis and kşetra pāla were added at base, while on top, sometimes a Gañadhara (or a big ācārya ) was included in the group of Jinas. An elaboration of the same conception is the famous Jaina Kirttistambha at Chitor (fig. 82).
Hemacandra ācārya, in his comm. on Abhidhāna Cintamani, I. 47-48, uses the word dhvaja for the lāñchanas of Tirthankars while Aśādhara calls them heralds of families of the Jinas. In earlier texts such as the Kalpa sutra we do not obtain any reference to lāñchanas, nor do we obtain them on pedestals of Tirthankara images of the Kuşāņa age. It is therefore not known whether the lāñchanas were known before the Gupta age. Dhvaja’ may be a banner, a herald and the lāñchana of a Jina may signity the mark or symbol crowning his herald. The Garud 1-dhvaja might have been the herald of Väsudeva, erected on a pillar in front of a shrine of the deity. Viewed in this light, it is not unlikely that in the Kuşāņa age there were such pillars or dhvajas in front of Jaina teniples. Such pillars were surmounted by the herald or the lāñchanas of the various Jinas. As yet ro such capitals or pillars have been discovered but the relief of such pillars in the Ayāgapața noted above suggest the possibility of their future discovery.
Dr. Coomaraswamy has drawn our attention to the reliefs of Amarāvati ( Elements of Buddhist Iconography, figures 4-10) where the Buddha is re. presented as a fiery pillar with wheel-marked feet below supported by a lotus, and with a triśūla 'head' and has shown that “they represent the survival of a purely Vedic formula in which Agni is represented as the axis of the Universe, extending as a pillar between Earth and Heaven (cf. RV. VI. 16.13,
1 Also see, Banerji, J. N. Op. cit., p. 116 and note. 2 Coomaraswamy, A. K. HIIA., fig. 71. 3 For Kahaon pillar, see, Fleet, Gupta Inscriptions, 66-68. 4 See Pratisthāsāroddhāra, 4. 214, p. 115.