Evidence of the Origin of Tirthankara Images in the Archaeological

Literature

Brijesh Rawat

DSM National Rehabilitation University, Lucknow, India

Keywords: Jainism, Buddhism, Jina, Indus Civilization, Literatures, Vadik, Vedas, Image,Mauryan, Sunga.

Abstract: Jainism has occupied its prominent place since Ancient India. There had been twenty fourTirthankaras in this

religion. Rishabha was the first promulgator and first Tirthankara. Rig-Veda, Yajurveda and Atharveda

mention the name of Rishabha, tirthankaraAjit and tirthankarNemi. Similarly, in other Ancient Indian

literature, along with the mention of saidtirthankars, the mention of Parshva and Mahavira too has been found

in plenty. Shishnadeva, Nagnahu, Keshin, Shraman, addressed in Rig-Veda are synonyms of tirthankars.

Words like Udharvareta,Udharvamanthi, Nirgrantha, Vatarshna,Shaman etc, cited in other ancient literature

has been used for Jinas and sages which definitely augments the presence, value and popularity of Jainism

and Tirthankaras. In Harappa Civilization the writer has obtained seventeen sculptures akin to the images of

tirthankaras, which bears resemblance to the idols of Historic Tirthankara sculptures. Following this, the

construction of the sculptures of Jinas continued during the Mauryan, Sungas and Kushanas period.

1 INTRODUCTION

The root source of the word Jaina is from the Sanskrit

word ‘Jina’. The meaning of the word ‘Jaina’ is of

Jainai.e. opinion of Jina, saying of Jina or discourse

of Jina. Its intention being the religion promulgated

by Jina was Jainism. The meaning of Jina was the

conqueror i.e. the one thatovercomes his mental

disorders or weaknesses, is called Jina. Jina is also

known as Jinadeva,Jineshvara, Jinendra etc.in as a

mark of respect. These in a venerable term are called

as Arhat, Arhant andArihant. Worldly sensual

environment and kashaya form disordersare known as

love and hatred.By conquering over this love and

hatred one becomes Vitarag(free of passions) or Jina.

As self-conquering person is a vitarag, hence for the

purpose of self-conquering the religion they preached

was called as vitarag religion.

Jina’sare praised by deva-adideva, Indra etc.

Hence they have been named as shreshttha

(paramount). Their soul too in their previous birth

was engrossed with desire and passions like an

ordinary man.But he acquired mukti(moksha) from

his bond of life and death, by following self-

introspection, devotion and entreaty.And, after this he

attained Kevalya. Because of the establishment of

tirtha after the attainment of kevalya together with

Sadhu- Sadhavis and Sravakas- Sravikasthey were

called tirthankaras.Tirthankaras been produced by the

word tirtha. And, the origin of tirtha word has with

the adding of prefix true with thaksuffix. It means

through whose medium one can get through or to

ferry over is tirtha.

In fact, it has been the characteristic feature of

Indian culture that there has always remained in the

cotemporary form the coordinated flow of different

views. This fact has always existed in the Cultural

history of every era. During its primary phases there

were two views that flowed parallel to each other- one

was the flow of Sramanic culture and the other was

the flow of the Brahmanic culture. Under brahmanic

culture comes Vedic or Aryan traditions and under

sramanic cultures comethe Buddhist, Jains and other

traditions where the yogic and meditative tendencies

were found in prominence.

Similarly the UttaradhyanaSutra of Jainism

mentions about the word ‘Naginina’the meaning of

which is nudity. The churnikaar of

Uttaradhayanasutra has described about the then

popular some sects like- Mrigacharika, Udadandak,

(an ascetic walking with a stick raising up in his

hand), Jaina and Ajivakas saints who used stay nude.

Similarly one another popular word is

shishnadevah which occurs in the second mandala of

Rig Veda. The meaning of it isa subject of dispute.

996

Rawat, B.

Evidence of the Origin of Tirthankara Images in the Archaeological Literature.

DOI: 10.5220/0012534300003792

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 1st Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies (PAMIR 2023), pages 996-999

ISBN: 978-989-758-687-3

Still the meaning of it is shishnadevahi.e.linga deva.

It’s still clear meaning is the god who bears linga

(male organ). For worshipping thelinga Aryans called

Non Aryans as shishnadeva. The worship of linga

in direct form was done by the shaiva Sect. It is quite

possible that Non Aryan would have been the

followers of shaiva religion and would have

worshipped thelinga; hence NonAryanswere called

shishna deva.As regards the archaeological evidence

from the ancient sites of Indus Valley Civilisation

namely Mohan-Jo-Daro and Chahundaro the image

of Pashupati Shiva and from Dhaulavirathe lingas

made from Stone has been obtained. Form

Kalibangan the shivalingawith yonipeetha has also

been found. The literal meaning of the word

shishnadeva is not completely correct. My opinion is

that that the worshippers of linga would have been

called shishnaman or shishnaworshipper and not

shishnadeva. The word deva is used for God. The

meaning of Deva is the one who gives. That means

the one who gives the contemporary society some

specialknowledge,culture, concept, is called deva.

Hence it is quite appropriate that the use of the ‘deva’

word of shishnadeva must have been used for some

exceptional manor great man. This kind of

exceptional man might would have been Jina or

tirthankara, who being completely nude or in the

digambarattva form, their linga along with the other

parts of the body was visible. And these were not deva

but after the attainment of Kevalyathey looked

accordinglylike extraordinary men who as the

respective gods of the contemporary writers were

referred to as devaas per their level. Similar types of

stone and terracottas figures have been obtained from

the ancient sites of Mehargarh, Mohan-jo- Daro,

Harappa, Dhaulavira etc. of the Indus Valley

Civilization. Hence the word Shisnadeva is quite

close to the tirthankaras. Jinas have also the

synonyms like deva-deva or deva-adideva. In Rig-

Veda itself the word Nagnahu has been mentioned. It

is clear that the meaning of this word was related to

nudity or without clothes. Nagnahu and

Shishnadevah are words having similar meanings.

The meaning of both of the words is digambarattva.

The nudity or digambarattva are the most important

characteristic of the Jina Images.

There was the presence of sramanas during the

timeof GautamBuddha also. Gautam Buddha spoke

while bringing the systematization in the conduct

system of sramanas-

Nahambhikkhavesanghatikasyasanghatidharana

mattensamaannayyamvadaami,

Achelakasyaachelakamattenranjojalikasyarajojali

kamattena….

Jatilkasyajatadharanamattensammannayyamvada

ami!

i.e. oh Bhikshusdon’t call sramannya only for the

sake of wearing drapery by the sanghatikas, by mere

chelakatva of achelakas, rajjolikaatavas of rajjaolikas

and wearing jataas by the Jatas bearers are not called

sramannyas. It means that I don’t call it by mere

symbolization, but they do have distinctive qualities

and conduct.

Similarly we do get ample information about the

matters relating to Jainism through Vedic Literature

and Puranas. Besides this B.C. Bhattacharya in his

book ‘The Jaina Iconography has mentioned about

the description in Arthashastra written by Kautilya

about the sculptures of Jayanta, Vaijayanta,

Aparajita and other Jaina gods etc. The seventh pillar

Inscriptions of Asoka’s also mentions about the

nirgrantha (as were called in beginning), the

followers of twenty fourth tirthankara Mahavira-

Hemeva baamnesuaajivikesu pi mekate….

Niganathesu pi me

It is known from the inscription engraved in the

Hathigumpha Inscription (First century B.C.) of

Kharvela in Udaigiri, Odisha, that in the twelfth year

of his reign as a result of his victory, Kharvela

brought back the sculpture of Jina that had been taken

away by the Nandaraja-

Bar same cha base… Nandarajaneetam cha ka (li)

gam JinaSamnivesa

Through this chronological analysis it is clear that

there is ample description about sramanas tradition

and cultures either directly or indirectly in Veda,

Arthashastra, Puranas, Buddhist texts and

Inscriptions. It is proved that prior to the composition

of Vedas the yogavadiSraman tradition was fully

established which were referred by other synonyms

like – sraman,vratya,shishnadeva, arhat, arihant,

vatarshanaetc. During the Vedic period the words like

sramana,vratya,shishnadevah, and nagnhu etc. have

been described in adequate quantity, but if its direct

linkages be added to the historical Jainism then it

would be a prejudice. Yes, the intended

distinguishing features of Jainism were observed in

the then contemporary description, through which

this assessment is made simple and distinctive that

probably the Jainism was prevalent in its primary

stage prior to the Vedic phase. The evidences in

favour of it are the sculptures similar to the sculpture

in kayotsargamudra found from the sites of Indus

Valley Civilisation. The relationship between some of

the kayotsarga sculptures obtained from Indus Valley

Civilization and of the sculptures of Rishabha

ofHistorical period. The sculptures are in meditative

(dhyanamagna) posture and in vitaraagmudra. The

Evidence of the Origin of Tirthankara Images in the Archaeological Literature

997

dharmachakra, naga, animals and trees all are the

characteristic features of the Jaina art.

While throwing light on the other side of the

sramanawords light gets thrown on one other

fact.Since sramanas were of yoga tendency and used

to stay nude, they perhaps would have worn the dress

of saints, as two kinds of sculptures had been obtained

from Harappa Civilisations. First were of

dighambarattva and kayotsargamudrasculptures, and

the second sculptures were in the yogamudra wearing

drapery in both standing and meditative posture. Here

the second type i.e. those wearing drapery and in

meditative postures have been described. The male

sculpture made from steatite has been obtained from

the ancient sites of HR areas of gadhi’s mound of

Mohan-jo- Daro whose hair and beard are well

combed along with the moustaches too are worth

noticing which is clearly visible. The hair is well

combed and has been tied with a band at the back. The

forehead is flat, nose is small but well elevated, eyes

are half closed, and the lower lip is broad. The eyes

are looking down at the tip of the nose. The ear is

small and circular. The chivar (the garment of an

ascetic) being prepared of three leaves covers the left

shoulders and the right shoulder being depicted bare.

The rest portion of it is broken. The length of it is 19

cms.

There are some distinctive characteristics in all

these four sculptures.The well combed hair of Raj

yogi tied up with a band, well combed beard, armlet

and the drapery (chivar)embroidered with three

leaves is the indicator of being civilized. The three

faced Shiva or Pashupati Shiva is well adorned with

jewelleries, and the cloth touching in the triangular

form that is hanging down from his neck uptothe

stomach portion too proves him not to be an ordinary

yogi but specifies him to be a special person or the

king or god. Of the other two sculptures, one that is

sitting in bhusparshamudra, his cloth is like an

ordinary drapery with no jewelleries in hand etc.

Similarlythe standing sculpture too is covered with an

ordinary drapery. Through this one comes to know

about three kinds of yogis. There is one who is a

Rajpurusha(person relatedto royal family), the second

one is Devapurushaand the third one devoid of heavy

clothes and jewelleries, bold and the extraordinary

yogi who has achieved his position through his hard

work and effort. It seems that during Indus

Civilisation meditation and yoga was prevalent for all

the classes whether they were devas, rulers or

ordinary society and hence we get the description

about it in abundance in Vedic samhitas.

Besides, on the coins of Indo-Greek rulers along

with the depiction of Indo- Greek god and goddesses

the representation of figures similar to Indian god and

goddesses were also shown. On the coins of Plato

there is the depiction of god with a halo on the chariot

driven by four horses. He is estimated and identified

with Mithra or Sun. Similarly during the Second

century B.C. on the obverse side of the silver coins of

Maues a male figure with a halo is depicted on the

chariot driven by two horses. In one of his hand is a

lance and in front of him is a charioteer. According to

some scholars this figure belongs to Sun. On the

silver coins of the Indo-Greek king Agathocles has

been obtained from Ae Khanum situated from

Vakshu Area, on one side of which there are

standingfigures one holding chakra and the other one

holding plough and a club. They have been identified

with Krishna and Balram. Similarly on the other

silver coins of Agathocles a female figure in Indian

costume and a leopard has been shown who has been

identified by Jitendra Nath Banerjea as

AshvamukhiYakshini. The Saka King Moas of

Second century B.C. had issued about twenty types of

coins. Among these on the reverse side of one of

these copper coins there is a sitting figure which the

scholars believe it to be the image of Buddha.

Kushana King Kanishka too had made the depiction

of Buddha in ample quantity.

Besides these, there is one more description that

needs to be mentioned, that is there is about thirty

Neolithic stone shelters near and around Mori village

of the Mandasor District of Madhya Pradesh. Over

the roofs and walls of it there is drawing made by

ochre. It depicts varieties of animals, humans in

dancing pose and the depiction of cowherds along

with theanimals which is contemporary to the third

and fourth category ofPanchamadhi paintings. Some

drawn figures of this place are of importance. Like a

square swastika in a circle, chakra with eight spokes,

Sun with its rays, triangular house, bullock cart and

most important is the sarvatobhadra symbol

emancipating from the creeper of swastika which is

of great importance from the perspective of Jainism

and Jaina sculptures of sarvatobhadrika types.

2 CONCLUSIONS

Hence it is my observation, that Yogavadi sramanas

tradition was fully established during the Harappan

civilisation, whether it was Shaivism, Buddhism or

Jainism. Unless the Harappan script is deciphered, it

would be a prejudice and in haste to come to any

conclusion. But still on the basis of Iconography, it

would not be wrong to say that, during the then

contemporary period too that there was the existence

PAMIR 2023 - The First Pamir Transboundary Conference for Sustainable Societies- | PAMIR

998

of Buddhism and Jainism in one form or the other,

with a difference in name. From this study it is clear

that during the Harappan and Vedic phase there was

the prevalence of the construction of sculptures for

religious purpose. During the said phase there was a

clear and religious environment in which along with

the other sculptures the construction of religious

sculptures too were constructed, out of which some of

the sculptures due to its artistic characteristics bears

very close similarity with the Jaina sculptures. In

course of time there was a chronological development

from these proto sculptures similar to the

tirthankaras,to that of the historical

tirthankarasImages.

REFERENCES

Uttaradhyana Sutra, 23/12

Rig-Veda, 2/14/4

ibid, 2/19/27

Majjhim Nikaya, 40

Bhattacharya,B.C., The Jaina Iconography, Lahore,1936,

p.33

Samrat Asoka, Seventh Pillar Inscription

Kharvela , Hathigumpha Inscriptions, Udaigiri, Orissa

John Marshall, Mohan-Jo-Daro and the Indus Valley

Civilisation, London, 1931,III, Pl.XCV,26 and 27

Mackay, Further Excavations at Mohan-Jo-Daro, New

Delhi,1938,II, Pl. L.XXX11,6,10,11and

PL.LXXV,12,1

Gupta,P.L., Bharat Ke Purva Kaalik Sikke, Varanasi, 1996,

p.103

ibid, p.133

ibid, p.103

ibid, p.132

Indian Archaeology- A Review, New Delhi, 1957-58, p.27,

Pl.14/1-4

Evidence of the Origin of Tirthankara Images in the Archaeological Literature

999