Symbol worship in Jainism

In Jainism, from the very early times, the stūpa act as a main symbol of worship though there were various symbols in Jainism likes Caitya-tree, the Aṣṭa-Maṅgalas, the Dharma-Cakra, the Āyāgapaṭa, Tri-ratna, and Pratimāsarvato-bhadrikā etc. The worship of aniconic form was never allowed in Jainism to act as simply by itself as the likeness of the person or the thing symbolized. The aniconic representations had, however, such a meaning and implication as were to differentiate them from a purely decorative or artistic form. All these symbols are actually associated with Tīrthaṅkaras and gradually Tīrthaṅkaras come to be symbolized and the worship of the Jain images is said to be adoration of the aggregate of qualities which the pious worshipper strives to acquire himself. The Jain image thus essentially came to be a symbol of these qualities.

During the medieval period these symbols were also worshiped by Jain community and along with these they also worshiped the Fourteen or Sixteen Dreams seen by a Jaina’s Mother, the Aṣṭāpada, the Pañca-Merus, the Nandīśvara-Dvipa, the Caraṇa-pādukās or Foot-prints and the Niṣidis or the Memorial structure of great monks and nuns. Among these symbols the Āyāgapaṭa, Caitya-tree, the Aṣṭāpada and Pratimā-sarvato-bhadrikā are very popular and these aniconic objects are also found from several archaeological sites. A good number of Jain āyāgapaṭas (Pl.XV.D) belonging to the first century BCE to thired century CE were discovered from Kankali Tila, Mathura (Quintanilla 2007: 79-137). This became a major object of worship among the Jainas and it needs a brief introduction. U.P.Shah in his book  Jain Art” had elaborately described about the symbol worship among the Jainas and he also specially emphasis on the Āyāgapaṭas, which he divided into nine groups, based on the characteristic of the worship of the Āyāgapaṭas (Shah 1955/1998: 77-82).

The large, intricately carved stone plaques known as Āyāgapaṭa have been understood as Jain votive tablets of homage. The Āyāgapaṭas mostly are assignable to the later phase of the Śuṅga art; however, some of them belong to the period of transition to the Kuṣāṅa art (ibid: 77). The available archaeological, literary and epigraphical evidence suggests that Āyāgapaṭas were integral elements of sacred grounds, where they were venerated as objects of worship and possibly used in meditation and teaching.

A study made by Sonya Rhie Quintanilla divides the Āyāgapaṭas in two major categories on the basis of their relief of carvings and inscriptions and they are the diagrammatic and the pictorial. These were probably made throughout a period spanning at least four hundred years (Quintanilla 2000: op.cit.). There are controversies regarding the actual meaning as well as the purpose of the Āyāgapaṭas^[1] . It is true that the meaning of the word imply that Āyāgapaṭas themselves may have been objects of worship, rather than ornamental platforms for receiving offerings, slabs that adorned the exterior face of stūpas, or votive offerings to other images, as scholars have propounded.

The stone plaques that are identified as Āyāgapaṭas are Jain in sectarian orientation, since they are carved with images of Jain Tīrthaṅkaras (also Jainas), nude Jain monks, or they have inscriptions which invoke the arhats, which at that time referred to Jainas, the liberated beings of the Jain religion. The forms of Āyāgapaṭas are broad, flat stone plaques, usually measuring about two to three feet square, though some are slightly rectangular, and about three inches thick. They are covered on only one face with carvings that can include iconic figures, celestial and mythical beings, auspicious symbols, and vegetal ornamentation^[2].

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

R. S. Mishra considered Āyāgapaṭas to be renditions in stone of raṅgavalis, temporary decorative offerings made of colored powders or paints used in the worship of Jainas (Mishra 1980: 23) and U. P. Shah equates Āyāgapaṭas with balipaṭṭas, which he states should be understood as platforms on which lay srāvakas or srāvikās placed their offerings to tutelary deities or Jain gods (Shah 1941: 46), although elsewhere he does acknowledge that Āyāgapaṭas should be considered objects of worship.

[2]:

In this connection it should be mention here that a Jain Āyāgapaṭa was discovered from the Vaidyer Cak village of South 24 Parganas of the present study area. The object under study is a square plaque of sand stone (9 x 9 cm.) bearing two different theme of Jain religious ideology (Bandyopadhyay 2007:96). In one side the Āyāgapaṭa depicts the ground plan of a temple complex with a Tīrthaṅkara installed in the garbhagṛha, surrounded by an ambulatory path with four projections in four cardinal directions. In another side there is an eight-petalled lotus encircled by eight lāñchanas symbolizing eight Tīrthaṅkaras. The lotus motife represents nīlotpala, the