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I have been asking professors and students of Ph.D. whom I know to carry on research to find out the similarity in teaching, thoughts, words, meanings, conduct, icons etc. in Jainism and Buddhism. 48. The procession of elephant and tenment This is a procession of Jains with an elephant and is often called elephant procession. It can also be called pilgrimage of knowledge as a scripture has been put on that elephant. The chariot carries the icon of Tirthankara Bhagawan. The procession in practical terms is known as elephant procession, a chariot procession. This indicates generally things required in a procession. 49 to 54. The strips showing the weapons etc., and vehicles of Yakshas and Yakshinis of 24 Tirthankaras The traditional architects and sculptors including Sompura architects and sculptors, scholars, ascetics, female ascetics, Shravakas and trustees etc. are confused about the names of anonymous icons of gods and goddesses. To avoid such confusion the scriptures have their guidelines in the form of facial features, position of arms, their vehicles and the weapons or other items in their hands. The illustrations of 24 Yakshas and Yakshinis were published in a strip in the second edition of the album but they being small and not quite clear we have printed eight strips in this third edition so that the icons can be easily identified It was decided to illustrate only four arms and the vehicle instead of the gods and the goddesses as the weapons and other items in the arms can be clearly known from the strip measuring one and a quarter inches. To mark the god and the goddess of a particular Tirthankara the respective number of Tirthankara is shown in a circle at the centre. At the top are given the names of gods and goddesses. Below are shown the vehicles and in the four arms are shown related and respective weapons etc.
In the figures of Yakshas and Yakshinis the heads of the first, sixteenth and twenty-third-of all the three are respectively those of a deer, and an elephant. Its still not known why such vehicles are created which don't exactly depict various animals and birds. Some Yakshas have more than one head. Their number is 11. Their arms are four to, while among Yakshinis, except in the case of Chakreshwari all the remaining 23 Yakshinis have four arms and one head each.
This means the males i.e. Yakshas have more heads and arms while the females i.e. Yakshinis have only one head each. From this it may be imagined that males have a right to speak more while females have a right to speak less. I am sure intelligent onlookers will like my imagination which presents novelty. No further introduction is necessary as all information including the names are written in every strip.
55. The over all view of various types of mono-sense beings There are infinite beings, both with visible and invisible existing in the whole cosmos. As it is difficult to describe or define the infinite beings ancient composers of scriptures have classified them into 563 types. The 563 types are further divided into five sub-divisions. These five sub-divisions contain beings with one to five senses. The names of the external forms of these internal senses are the sense of touch, the sense of taste, the sense of smell, the sense of seeing and the sense of hearing and their respective organs are the skin, the tongue, the nose, the eyes and the ears. 1. The sense of touch gives the idea of eight types of touch, showing hot or cold, hard or soft etc. 2. Six types of tastes viz. sour, saltish, pungent, bitter,sweet and astringent are experienced by the sense of taste i.e. the tongue. 3. Good or bad smell is the subject of the sense of smell i.e. the nose. 4. Colours-red, green, yellow, black, white, blue etc. are recognised by the sense of seeing i.e. the eyes and 5. The experience of hearing sound is through the sense of the ears. There are infinite beings with the mono-sense (of touch), with bi-sense (of touch and smell), with tri-sense (of touch, smell and taste), with quadruple-sense (of touch, smell, taste and seeing) respectively. There are also innumerable beings with five-fold senses (of touch, smell, taste, seeing and hearing) The illustrated strip is given here to show the types of beings with one to five senses in 563 groups of beings as fixed through classification by the composers of Jain religion. The first illustrated strip shows beings with one sense and the next shows all other types of beings. In strip no. 55 all types of mono-sense beings are presented. In this strip the five constituents earth, water, fire, air and vegetation are shown. All these beings have got only mono-sense bodies because of the outcome of sin. They dont have the senses of the tongue, eyes, nose and ears. The earth should be understood as land and mountains, fire should be understood as all types of fire from the lightning in the sky to all types of fire on the land, air should be understood as all types of air that moves and by vegetation all types of flora and fauna, trees etc. should be understood. All the human beings, animals and petty insects are nourished by various products of vegetation. All the beings use land (the earth) for accomodation, water, fire and air for living and mostly use vegetarian products for nourishment of the body etc. Those mono-sense beings are alive as long as all these substances remain combined. When separated from the original source, they gradually become lifeless. Mostly the lives of other beings of the world are sustained on these mono-sense beings.
Note:73. Really speaking the word "Varghodo' pertains to the bridegroom riding a horse and going for his marriage ceremony with a group of
people. But generally it is as good as a currency coin for all the ceremonies in Gujarat today. The group of people walking with a pomp in any religious or social occasion is known by the word 'Varghodo'. The word 'Sarghas' is also prevalent in Gujarat but its traditional meaning is not befitting to all the occasions today and no other suitable word in Gujarati is available. In Hindi the similar word is *Varyatra' and it has become popular in Gujarat too. So I have also written it here.
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