The Grammar of Jina Iconography II [Part 10]

The essay was published in Berliner Indologische Studien No. 13/14. 2000, pp. 273-337.

§ 10. List of Figures and Notes (I)

Fig. 1

§ 2. Jaina couple from Sahet-Mahet, now State Museum, Lucknow. A.D. 800-900. Shah Pa: fig.11c. - If better preserved, the piece would show some interesting iconographic details. Compare for posture, and style, Krishna Gu: pls. 53 (Umā and Maheśvara) and 93 (Kubera and wife). - Photo: U.P. Shah, Parents of the Tīrthaṅkaras, fig. 11 c.

 

Fig. 2.

§ 2. Jaina couple from the village of Pakbirra. A.D. 850-950 (cf. Khandalavala Pa: 61b). Burgess An: fig. 294 = Bhattacharyya Pa: pl. 12. - The two jars below the seat are reminiscent of Kubera's jars: Misra Ya: figs. 16 (Kubera with wife; two jars, standing for padma and śaṅkha), and of Pāñcika's jars (Mitra Ra: pl. 121b; Misra Ya: fig. 19). The frieze motif (unidentified story) is unique. - The authors of Bhattacharyya Pa mention three images of the couple at Pakbirra (pp. 162-163, pls. 10 and 12). They identify the two published images in the text tentatively as parents of a Jina (p. 163). The language is flowery as it is not rare in descriptions: “... the figures of the seated couple... show a tense emotion and an elegant and sensitive modelling... The romance and joy on the birth of a child has been fully reflected in the emotion they expressed“. [The hair dressing, etc.] “accentuate the feeling of joy and ecstasy and a sensuous charm“ (p. 163). - Photo: Jas. Burgess, The Ancient Monuments, Temples and Sculptures of India, Vol. II, fig. 294.

 

Fig. 3

§ 2. Jaina couple from Eastern Bengal. Bronze. A.D. 800-900. - The peculiarity of this image and of the closely related image Pal Ex: 175 (miniature Jina with unclear cihna, Bihar, “ca. 900“) consists mainly of the similar rendering of (a) the children on their parents' lap, (b) the figure in the tree and (c) the (six/five) figures on the socles: all are in a seated posture and all show abhayadāna. The two images form a “doublet“ (see Bruhn Gr III/IV for doublets, triplets, etc.). - Publication: Kreisel Li: fig. 76. Copyright: U. Didoni, Linden-Museum Stuttgart.

 

Fig. 4

§ 3. Four-armed devī with child and lion from Jaynagar/Rajaona, Monghyr Dt., ca. A.D. 1000-1100. Inscription unpublished (Bautze-Picron Gr: 43; see Asher La: 302 for further epigraphic evidence). Burgess An: pl. 225 = Bautze-Picron Gr: fig. 28 (Bautze-Picron Gr: 43-44) = Bautze-Picron La: fig. 21 (A.23.). Hand-attributes, in pradakṣinā order: cup (“peut-être un gobelet“), ghaṇṭā (vajra-ghaṇṭā?), staff surmounted by a makara (actually by an unidentified motif including a makara), child. Child naked (liṅga visible) and holding cup or fruit (“le même attribut que celui offert par la Deesse dans la main inferieure droite“). Refer for the simpler “baton surmonte du makara “ to Bautze-Picron Gr: figs. 30-31 and p. 44. - Photo: Jas. Burgess, The Ancient Monuments, Temples and Sculptures of India, Vol. II, fig. 225.

Fig. 5

§ 3 (“cases of deviation“). Lower part of a Jina image from Akota. Bronze. U.P. Shah: ca. A.D. 600-650. - As mentioned in § 3, the twig motif (Shah Ak: fig. 27b) is also found with another Akota bronze (Shah Ak: fig. 40/4la; “8th cent.“). Both bronzes are closely related; they agree also in the heavy form of the central “seat-lotus“. The two attendant deities of fig. 5 have simple bhāmaṇḍala.s: formula of figs. 7-8 which see. - Photo: U.P. Shah, Akota Bronzes, fig. 27b.