Svasti

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: K S Muddappa Smaraka Trust

Page 42

M.N.P. Tiwari & S.S. Sinha, Art as Potent Source of Indian History
Yāpanīya sect, has not been accepted by the Digambara sect, according to which the original Anga texts were lost. Thus the Kuşāņa Jina images from Mathurā, showing full concurrence with the Agamic tradition can suggest no sectarian affiliation with the Digambaras. It rather, and up to at least the mid-second century A.D., represents the undifferentiated proto-Svetāmbara and Digambara sects. The earliest examples showing distinctly the difference of the Svetāmbara and the Digambara sects in visual representations are known only from the late fifth century A.D. onwards (as exemplified by Akoţā Jaina bronze images from Gujarat). In the gamut of Kuşāna sculptures the rendering of auspicious symbols (svastika, śrīvatsa, triratna, cakra or dharmacakra, pūrnaghata, mīnayugala) was also very popular. Besides rendering of auspicious symbols either in group of eight (astamangala) or separately as svastika, dharmacakra, stūpa on āyāgapatas, these are carved also on the snake hoods covering the head of Pārsvanātha (svastika, dharmacakra, triratna, śrīvatsa) and on the soles, palms and finger-tips of different Jina figures (svastika, cakra, triratna). However, as far as these auspicious symbols and their renderings are concerned they should be taken as non-sectarian in character since they were derived from the common ancient Indian heritage mostly of Vedic tradition. Such symbols could be identified as Jaina or Buddhist only in reference to their representational context. Astamangala-mālā (garland with eight auspicious marks) and triratna (three jewels of Buddhism and Jainism), cakra (disc or wheel of religion or disc) and śrīvatsa are commonly found in Buddhist (Sāñchi, Bharhut, Takshashila) and Jaina (Mathurā) art and literature (Angavijjā - Jaina text) to denote cultural commonality. Rsabhanātha with lateral strands, name and bull cognizance has semblance with Śiva, while Neminātha joined by the figures of Balarāma and Väsudeva Krsna and endowed in Gupta period with conch cognizance reveal bearing of Vaisnava or Bhāgavata cult. Pārsvanātha with a seven-hooded snake canopy overhead has distinct impact of Nāga cult for which Mathurā was so well known". The Paumacariyam of Vimalasūri (1st to 4th cent. A.D.) eulogizes Rsabhanātha with appellations such as Brahmā, Trilocana, Sankara and Ananta Nārāyana (5.122). Further Rsabhanātha, in the Adipurāna of Jinasena (8th century A.D.), has been endowed with 1008 appellations which distinctly show the cordial and interactive approach of Jainism in assimilating Brahmanical and Buddhist deities such as Svayambhū, Sambhū, Sankara, Sadyojāta, Trinetra, Jitamanmatha, Tripurāri, Trilocana, Siva, iśāna, Bhūtanātha, Mrtuñjaya, Maheśvara, Mahādeva, Jagannātha, Lakşmīpati, Dhātā, Brahmā, Hiranyagarbha, Viśvamūrti,
4G. Bühler, 'Specimens of Jaina Sculptures from Mathurā', Epigraphia Indica, Vol-II, pp. 311-22; U.P. Shah, "Evolution of Jaina Iconography and Symbolism", Aspects of Jaina Art and Architecture, (Eds.) U.P. Shah and M.A. Dhaky, Ahmedabad, 1975, pp. 49-74; V.S. Agrawala, 'Some Brahmanical Deities in Jaina Religious Art', Jaina Antiquary, Vol. III, No. IV, March 1938, p. 59; V.A. Smith, The Jaina Stupa and other Antiquities of Mathurā, Varanasi (reprint), 1969, pp. 56-57.