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shaped chest mark (srivatsa), the head protuberance (urnisa), the guardian deities and divine musicians.
Jina images have varied forms: the single image, the double, triple, quadruple or quintuple images, and in some instances images of all twenty-four jinas on a single slab or within one frame. The quadruple image may be of the same jina or of different jinas on each of the four sides. The double, triple or quintuple are conventionally of different jinas. Iconography developed independently in three geographical areas: Gandhara in the northwest (now Pakistan), Mathura in northern India and Amaravati in southern India.
The statue of Gommateswara Bahubali at Sravanbelgola (981 CE) is nineteen metres high and sculpted from a single rock and is the largest freestanding monolithic image in the world. It symbolises complete detachment from the world, an aspiration for all Jains (Doshi 1981: p.10) Among Jain sculptures, the jina images provide the artist with little scope for the display of individual talent, due to the prescribed conventions. But, in the representation of guardian deities, Sarasvati, the goddess of learning, the nine planets, the spatial deities (ksetrapalas), the worshippers, and in decorative motifs, the artist was not constrained by prescribed formulae and exercised greater freedom. Artistic genius produced art and sculpture of immense aesthetic beauty. Jain art has produced intricately decorated scriptures, votive tablets, stone balustrades, pillars, architraves, walls, balconies, ceilings and domes seen in the earlier cave temples, such as Ellora, through to the medieval temples, such as those at Khajuraho, Delwara and Ranakapura, and to the recently consecrated temple at Leicester in England.
Yantras: The siddhacakra, the wheel of salvation, is one of the most popular mystical diagrams (yantras) of the Jains. Digambars often personify it as the 'nine adorable ones'. It depicts an enlightened one, a liberated one, an aacaarya, an upaadhyaya, an ascetic, Right Faith, Right Knowledge, Right Conduct and austerity. Some devotees use it for daily worship, while others use it for the elaborate ceremony of siddhacakra mahaapujana. In this elaborate ceremony, the siddhacakra is made from coloured rice grains and includes in its representations the sixteen goddesses of learning, guardian deities, the nine planets, Brahma, Indra, the Moon, and the four spatial deities. Plate 6.1 Brass Jina Statues with the Siddhachakra Yantra at Jain Centre, Leicester
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