Svasti

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

Page 44

M.N.P. Tiwari & S.S. Sinha, Art as Potent Source of Indian History
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The Neminatha figures accompanied by Balarama and Vasudeva-Kṛṣṇa are quite interesting since they suggest syncretic concept and also mutuality in Jaina worship as early as in the Kuṣāna period. In one instance of c. 1 century A.D. (State Museum, Lucknow, J. 37), the seated figure of Neminätha is joined by the figures of four-armed Balarama and Väsudeva- Kṛṣṇa on the right and left sides respectively. Balarama holds a pestle (müsala), a plough (hala) and a wine-cup (päna-pätra) in three of his surviving hands while Kṛṣṇa, wearing a vanamälä, shows abhaya-mudrā and a mace. However, the other two figures of Neminätha, seated as he is in dhyanamudra, also contain such figures but here a two-armed Balarama is shown in namaskāra-mudra with a canopy of a seven-hooded cobra. Another Neminātha image of late Kuṣaṇa period exhibits the figures of four-armed Balarama with plough and Kṛṣṇa with mace and disc in their surviving hands (Government Museum, Mathura, Acc. No. 2502). There are five other Jina images wherein two flanking male figures, one with a snake canopy, the other with crown and both shown with folded hands are carved (State Museum, Lucknow, J.4, J.60, J.117; Government Museum, Mathura, B.15, 34.2488). These flanking figures have rightly been identified by N.P. Joshi as Balarama and Kṛṣṇa and hence the Jina, on this strength, as Neminätha". Such sculptural examples to some extent are also indicative of the superiority of Jina Neminätha over the Vaiṣṇavite deities. The Vaisnava impact further blossoms during medieval period (9th to 13th century A.D.) and Neminatha images with flanking figures of four-armed Balarama and Väsudeva Krsna are found from Mathura and Deogarh, besides several Vaisnava themes like. Kāliya-mardana, Kṛṣṇa playing Holi (sprinkling of coloured water on gopa-gopikās) and his birth and childhood episodes carved in Jaina temples of Delväḍā (VimalaVasahi and Lüṇa-Vasahī, 12- 13 century A.D.).
Another significant form of Kuṣāņa Jina image was a four-fold image, known as Pratima-Sarvatobhadrikä or Jina Caumukhi, about 20 examples of which are found at Mathura. The terms "Pratima-sarvatobhadrika" and "Sarvatobhadra pratima" mentioned in pedestal inscriptions denote that the image was auspicious from all the sides. The carving of Jina Caumukhi, showing four Jina figures standing on four sides, started as early as in the first century A.D. and its earliest examples are procured from Kankali Tilä, Mathura. Such images remained popular in all the regions in subsequent centuries and further developed as Sarvatobhadra-Jinälaya (temple), the examples of which are at Guna (M.P.), Kharatara-Vasahi (Delvädä) and Ranakpur (Rajasthan). The temples were built during 11-12th to 15th centuries A.D.. Culturally expressions like sarvatobhadra or sarvajana hitaya sukhāya in the Jaina images of
"N.P. Joshi, "Early Icon from Mathura", The Cultural Heritage, (Ed.) D.M. Srinivasan, New Delhi, 1989, pp. 335-38.
'Epigraphica Indica, Vol-II, pp. 202-03, 210, Inscription Nos. 2, 13, 16; B.C. Bhattacharya, The Jaina Iconography, Lahore, 1939, p. 48.