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In ancient times the jaina monks went about completely naked, having put
away all those caste marks and particularizing tokens that are of the
essence of Indian costume and symbolize the wearer's involvement in the
web of human bondage. Later on, in Mahavira's period many assumed a white
garment as a concession to decency and termed themselves swetambara,
" those whose garment (ambara) is white (sweta)." This raiment
denoted their ideal of alabaster- like purity, and so was not too great a
departure from the heroic mode of the conservatives, who continued to
style themselves Digambara, "those whose garment (ambara) is the
element that fills the four quarters of space (dig). " The
Tirthankaras are therefore sometime depicted naked, and sometimes clad in
white. Rsabhanatha, in the alabaster monument under discussion, wears a
thin silken robe, covering his hips and legs.
But there is a special
problem that arises in Jaina iconography as a result of the drastic purity
of the ideal of the Tirthankara. The sculptor cannot be allowed to damage
the sense of his representation by modifying in any way the perfect
isolation and non-particularity of the released beings. The pristine
life-monads are to be represented without fault. How, then, is the
worshiper to distinguish one of these "victors" from another,
since all- having transcended the sphere of time, change, and
specification- are as alike as so many certified eggs? The solution to the
difficulty was the simple one of providing every image with an emblem that
should refer either to the name or to some distinctive detail of the
legend of the Tirthankara intended. This is why the statue of Rsabhanatha-
literally "Lord (natha) Bull (rsabha)"- shows a little zebu-bull
beneath the savior's feet. The effect of such juxtaposition is that in
dramatic contrast to these accompanying figures, which are reminiscent of
the world, and life from which the Tirthankara has withdrawn, the majestic
aloofness of the perfected, balanced, absolutely self-contained figure of
the saint become emphasized in its triumphant isolation. The image of the
released one seems to be neither animate nor inanimate, but pervaded by a
strange and timeless calm. It is human in shape and feature, yet as
inhuman as an icicle; and thus expresses perfectly the idea of successful
withdrawal from the round of life and death, personal cares, individual
destiny, desires, sufferings, and events. Like a pillar of some
supraterrestrial, unearthly substance, the Tirthankara, the
"Crossing-maker," the breaker of the path across the
stream of time to the final release and bliss of the other shore, stands
supernal motionless, absolutely unconcerned about the worshiping, jubilant
crowds that throng around his feet.
At sravana Belgola, Hashan
District, Mysore, is colossal figure of this kind that was erected about
983 AD by camundaraya, the minister of king Rajamalla of the Ganga
dynasty. It is hewn from a vertical rock needle, a prodigious monolith, on
a hilltop four hundred feet above the town. The image measures fifty-six
and one-half feet in height and thirteen feet around the hips, and is thus
one of the largest freestanding figures in the world; the feet are placed
on a low platform. Vines clambering up his body indicate the savior
represented, which refer to an episode in the biography of Gommata (also
called Bahubali, "strong of arm"), the son of the first
Tirthankara, Rsabhanatha. He is supposed to have stood unflinchingly for a
year in his yoga posture. The vines crept up to his arms and shoulders;
anthills arose about his feet; he was like a tree or rock of the
wilderness. To this day the entire surface of this statue is anointed
every twenty-five years with melted butter, as a result of which it still
looks fresh and clean.
There is legend to the effect that the image goes back to a date much
earlier than 983 AD, and that for ages it was forgotten, the memory of its
location being completely lost. Bharata, the first of India's mythical
Cakravartins is supposed, according to this account, to have erected it;
Ravana, the fabulous chieftain of the demons of Ceylon, paid it worship;
and when it passed, thereafter, from the memory of man, it became covered
with earth. The old legend tells us that Camundaraya was informed of its
existence by a traveling merchant and so made a pilgrimage to the sacred
place with his mother and few companions. When the party arrived, a female
earth-divinity, the yaksini Kusmandi, who had been an attendant of the
Tirthankara Aristanemi, manifested her and pointed out the hidden site.
Then with a golden arrow, Camundaraya split the hill and the colossal
figure could be seen. The earth was cleared away and craftsmen were
brought to cleanse the image and restore it.
The emblems of the Tirthankaras are as Follows:
1. Rash, bull
2. Ajita, elephant
3. Sambhava,
horse
4. Abhinandana,
ape
5. Sumati, heron
6. Padmaprabha, red lotus
7. Suparsva, swastika,
8. Candraprabha, moon,
9. Suvidhi, dolphin
10. Sitala, srivatsa
11. Sreyamsa, rhinoceros,
12. Vasupujya, buffalo
13. Vimala, hog,
14. Ananta, hawk,
15. Dharma,
thunderbolt,
16. Santi, antelope,
17. Kunthu, goat,
18. Ara, nandyavarta
19. Malli, jar,
20. Suvrata, tortoise,
21. Nami, blue lotus,
22. Aristanemi, conch shell,
23. Parsva, serpent,
24. Mahavira, Lion
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The standing attitude in which they are commonly
shown exhibits a characteristic, puppet like rigidity that come of- and-
denotes- inner absorption. The posture is called "dismissing the
body" (kayotsarga). The modeling avoids details and yet is not flat
or incorporeal; for the savior is without weight, without throbbing life
or any promise of delight, yet is a body - an ethereal reality with milk
in its veins instead of blood. The empty spaces left between the arms and
the trunk, and between the legs, are consciously intended to emphasize the
splendid isolation of the unearthly apparition. There is no striking
contour, no interesting trait of individuality, no cutting profile
breaking into space, but a mystic calm, an anonymous serenity, which we
are not even invited to share. And nakedness is as far removed as the
stars, or as bare rock, from sensuality; for in Indian art nakedness is
not intended to suggest either sensuous charm (as it is in the Greek
images of the nymphs and Aphrodite's) or an ideal of perfect bodily and
spiritual manhood, developed through competitive sport (as in the Greek
statues of the youthful athletes who triumphed in the sacred contests at
Olympia and elsewhere). The nakedness of Indian goddesses is that of the
fertile, indifferent mother earth, while that of the stark Tirthankaras is
ethereal. Composed of some substance that does not derive from, or link
one to, the circuit of life, the truly "sky-clad" (digambara)
Jaina statue expresses the perfect isolation of the one who has stripped
off every bond. He is an absolute "abiding in itself," a strange
but perfect aloofness, a nudity of chilling majesty, in its stony
simplicity, rigid contours, and abstraction.
The from of the image of the Tirthankara is like a bubble: at first sight
seemingly a bit primitive in its inexpressive attitude-simply standing on
its two legs- but actually highly conscious and rather sophisticated in
its avoidance of all the dynamic, glamorous, and triumphant achievements
of the contemporary Hindu art-the wonderful, vital sculpture of Elude,
Badami, and elsewhere. By the Jaina saint- and - artist - the restless
vitality both of the Hindu gods and of their mythical cosmic display is
ignored deliberately, as though in protest. Through a translucent
alabaster silence the great Passage- breaking doctrine is revealed of the
jaina way of escape from that universal manifold of enticement and
delusion.
For it is important to bear in mind that the Tirthankaras and their image
belong to a totally different sphere from that of the orthodox Hindu
devotions. The Hindu gods, dwelling in the heavens that Parsvanatha
transcended, still are accessible to human prayer, whereas the supreme
release attained by the Tirthankaras places them beyond all earthly
solicitude. They can never be moved from their eternal isolation.
Superficially, their cult may resemble that of the Hindu deities, who not
only graciously heed the prayers of man but even condescend to come down
into the lifeless temple images-as to a throne or seat in response to
consecrating rituals of conjuration and invition; for the Jainas pay
profound respect to the statues of their Tirthankaras and recount legends
of their miraculous origin. Nevertheless the attitude is not precisely
that of worship. The following story, told of the Lord Parsva in his next
to last earthly life, gives the clue to the special character of the Jaina
attitude.
The savior's name then, it will be remembered, was King Anandakumara.
When he had defeated the rulers of the surrounding nations and become a
Cakravartin, his minister suggested that he should hold a religious
celebration in honor of the Tirthankara Aristanemi; but when the king
enter the temple to worship he was disturbed by a doubt. "What is the
use," His thought, "of Bowing before an image, for an image is
unconscious?" there was a saint in the temple at the time, how
age," He told the king, "Affects the mind. If one holds a red
flower before a glass, the glass will be red; if one holds up a dark blue
flower the glass will be dark blue. Just so, the mind is changed by the
presence of image. Contemplating the form on the passionless Lord in Jaina
Temple, the minds become filled automatically with a sentiment of
renunciation; whereas at the sight up courtesan it became restless. No one
can regard the peaceful; absolute from the lord without recalling the
noble qualities of the lord; and this influence is the more forceful if
one worships. The mind straight way becomes purified. But given purity of
mind, one is already on the way to final bliss. "
The sage Vipulmati then illustrated his lesson
for the king with a metaphor that has many counterparts in the various
traditions of India, non-Jana as well as Jaina. "In a certain
town." He said, "there was a beautiful public women who died,
and her body was brought to the cremation ground. A certain licentious man
who chanced to be there looked upon her beauty and thought how fortunate
he would have deemed himself could he, but once in his lifetime, have had
the opportunity of enjoying her. Simultaneously a dog that was there,
seeing the corpse going into the fire, thought what dainty meals it would
have made for him had they not determined to waste it in the flames. But a
saint, also present, thought how regrettable that anyone endowed with such
a body should have neglected to make use of it in difficult yoga
exercises.
"there was but one corpse in that
place," said Vipulmati, "and yet it produced three sorts of
feeling in three different witnesses. An external thing will thus have its
effect according to the nature and purity of the mind. The mind," he
concluded, "is purified
by the contemplation and worship of the Tirthankaras make one fit,
therefore, to enjoy the pleasures of heaven after death - and can even
prepare one's mind to experience nirvana."`
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