Images of Tīrthaṅkara Pārśvanātha (Introduction)

The Jain is one of the greatest prophets or Tīrthaṅkaras of the Jainas. Some of the Jain scholars (Davids 1911: 543) regard him as the true founder of Jainism. Bhattacharya (1974:58) observed that, “His historicity is unquestioned, his date is almost precisely known and his influence on the Jain religion is of leading importance.” According to the Jain Purāṇas and Caritas he was born about 817 BCE and died about 717 BCE. His father Aśvasena, the king of Benares, gave Pārśva in marriage to the daughter of Prasenajit, king of Kośala. But, like Prince Siddhārtha, Pārśva left the princess to follow the life of an ascetic at 30 years of age. For about 70 years, he preached his doctrines and finally attained Mokṣa (liberation) on Mt. Summet Śikhara which is now known after him as Giri Pārśvanātha Hill in south Bihar (near Dhanbad) (Bhattacharya ibid, Nagar 1999:134-5).

From the Jain canonical texts, we know that his lāñchana or cognizance is a snake. In sculpture he is not only represented by a snake in the usual place of the emblem, but also with a three or seven or eleven hooded snake canopy upon his head.

His Yakṣa is Dharaṇendra and Yakṣiṇī is known as Padmāvati. This king, who stands by his side as a chowri-bearer is known as Ajitarāja. The Devadāru is his kevala-tree. It is interesting to mentioned here that a Kannada poet known as Pārśvapaṇḍita was composed Pārśvanāthapurāṇam in the early stage of the thirteen century CE. and in this text he does not much described about the iconographic details of Yakṣa and Yakṣī of Pārśvanātha. Where as he described Dharaṇendra as the leader of the Nāgas and the destroyers of the upsargas created by Kamaṭha and he also mentioned how Dharaṇendra spread his enormous hood over the mediatation Pārśva. On the other hand Padmāvati held anumbrella to protect her husband in turn. This type of the story is quite popular in the sculptural art of Karnataka region however, in the Pārśvanātha images of eastern India specially ancient Bengal we found an unusual type of depiction of Yakṣa and Yakṣiṇī. In some of the Pārśvanātha images Kamaṭha episode is also elaborately depicted.