161
centered by a most curious Roseapple tree, and the cosmic mother’s womb, or
Jambudvi-pa. There are hells and heavens. The esthetic fundaments of this dreamlike peaceable kingdom has its roots in the thousands of palm-leaf and paper or
cloth-illustrated manuscripts that embroider Jain history.
Gorgeous sutras, particularly the Kalpasutra of Bhadrabahu, and a famed manuscript detailing the temporal coordinates for any would be pilgrim, the
Dravyasamgraha. Most confounding of all to the uninitiated is that rejection of
time, as spelled out in the Acharya Jinasena’s Mahapurana, in which there really is
no time, no beginning, no ending. Six mountains, six states of happiness, a general
configuration not unlike some ancient version of Dante’s own itinerary 500 years
after Jinasena (ninth century).
In this extravagant cosmology, beauty is all of a paradox: it belies the inherent
orientation toward the spare and ascetic renunciation of that very passion in which
such art is clearly grounded. Hence, the Jain concept of passionless passion
9
.
Whether that paradoxical emotion could effectively grasp the fact that the tiger’s
historic range within India was likely over 40,000 individuals, versus today’s depauperate, desperate, and dispersed numbers is a question of ethical psychoanalysis.
We don’t know, but Jain faith, generally speaking, tends toward a brutally realistic
assessment of nature. Hence, the extraordinary lengths to which it goes to try and
protect everything.
Presently, the two munis have emerged from the cave and walked into a cluster
of householders at the adjacent temples. These were among the fewer than 80
remaining Digambara monks in all of the India at that time (mid-1980s). They were
naked and had all but two possessions: a gourd for carrying boiled water, and a picchi, a hand broom made of fallen peacock feathers to gently remove any insects
from their path. Their nudity, of course, is considered an ancient and sacred component of pan-Indian spirituality, unique to male Digambara ascetics. The householders, male and female Jains, placed strictly vegetarian food into the palms of the
monks and they took (or one of them did) his one meal of the day. The other was
fasting. These ascetics never stayed more than three nights in the same place.
Always walking, spreading the message of nonviolence (ahimsa) from village to
village. That was also the life of their esteemed predecessor, Mahavira, born a
prince, who—like his younger contemporary and follower, Buddha—would
renounce his wealth, everything, to adopt a comprehensive lifestyle of extreme
asceticism oriented toward that goal of liberation during his 72 years of life.
9 For a superb overview of such paintings, see, Treasures of Jaina Bhandaras, General Editors,
Dalsukh Malavnia, and Nagin J. Shah; Edited by Umakant P. Shah, L.D.Series 69, L.D.Institute Of
Indology, Ahmedabad, 1978. See also the three-volume, Jaina Art And Architecture, Published on
the Occasion of the 2500
th Nirvana Anniversary of Tirthankara Mahavira, Edited by A. Ghosh,
Bharatiya Jnanpith, New Delhi, 1974; and see, Kalpasutra – Eighth Chapter of the Dasasrutaskandha
of Bhadrabahu, with Hindi and English Versions and Coloured Reproductions of Original 16
th
Century Miniatures, Editor & Hindi Translator, Mahopadhyaya Vinaya Sagar, English Translation
by Dr. Mukund Lath, Note on Paintings by Dr. (Smt.) Chandramani Singh, Published by D. R.
Mehta, Prakrit Bharati, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, 1977.
18.2 The Cave
centered by a most curious Roseapple tree, and the cosmic mother’s womb, or
Jambudvi-pa. There are hells and heavens. The esthetic fundaments of this dreamlike peaceable kingdom has its roots in the thousands of palm-leaf and paper or
cloth-illustrated manuscripts that embroider Jain history.
Gorgeous sutras, particularly the Kalpasutra of Bhadrabahu, and a famed manuscript detailing the temporal coordinates for any would be pilgrim, the
Dravyasamgraha. Most confounding of all to the uninitiated is that rejection of
time, as spelled out in the Acharya Jinasena’s Mahapurana, in which there really is
no time, no beginning, no ending. Six mountains, six states of happiness, a general
configuration not unlike some ancient version of Dante’s own itinerary 500 years
after Jinasena (ninth century).
In this extravagant cosmology, beauty is all of a paradox: it belies the inherent
orientation toward the spare and ascetic renunciation of that very passion in which
such art is clearly grounded. Hence, the Jain concept of passionless passion
9
.
Whether that paradoxical emotion could effectively grasp the fact that the tiger’s
historic range within India was likely over 40,000 individuals, versus today’s depauperate, desperate, and dispersed numbers is a question of ethical psychoanalysis.
We don’t know, but Jain faith, generally speaking, tends toward a brutally realistic
assessment of nature. Hence, the extraordinary lengths to which it goes to try and
protect everything.
Presently, the two munis have emerged from the cave and walked into a cluster
of householders at the adjacent temples. These were among the fewer than 80
remaining Digambara monks in all of the India at that time (mid-1980s). They were
naked and had all but two possessions: a gourd for carrying boiled water, and a picchi, a hand broom made of fallen peacock feathers to gently remove any insects
from their path. Their nudity, of course, is considered an ancient and sacred component of pan-Indian spirituality, unique to male Digambara ascetics. The householders, male and female Jains, placed strictly vegetarian food into the palms of the
monks and they took (or one of them did) his one meal of the day. The other was
fasting. These ascetics never stayed more than three nights in the same place.
Always walking, spreading the message of nonviolence (ahimsa) from village to
village. That was also the life of their esteemed predecessor, Mahavira, born a
prince, who—like his younger contemporary and follower, Buddha—would
renounce his wealth, everything, to adopt a comprehensive lifestyle of extreme
asceticism oriented toward that goal of liberation during his 72 years of life.
9 For a superb overview of such paintings, see, Treasures of Jaina Bhandaras, General Editors,
Dalsukh Malavnia, and Nagin J. Shah; Edited by Umakant P. Shah, L.D.Series 69, L.D.Institute Of
Indology, Ahmedabad, 1978. See also the three-volume, Jaina Art And Architecture, Published on
the Occasion of the 2500
th Nirvana Anniversary of Tirthankara Mahavira, Edited by A. Ghosh,
Bharatiya Jnanpith, New Delhi, 1974; and see, Kalpasutra – Eighth Chapter of the Dasasrutaskandha
of Bhadrabahu, with Hindi and English Versions and Coloured Reproductions of Original 16
th
Century Miniatures, Editor & Hindi Translator, Mahopadhyaya Vinaya Sagar, English Translation
by Dr. Mukund Lath, Note on Paintings by Dr. (Smt.) Chandramani Singh, Published by D. R.
Mehta, Prakrit Bharati, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India, 1977.
18.2 The Cave