Further Evidence from Ellora’s Antechambers

con-ceptions of the celestial assembly hall is also demonstrated in two paint-ings located on the ceiling of the shrine antechambers in J19 and J20.

Here, we find parallel representations of a multi-armed male deity who is in the midst of a rhythmic dance. Although the painting in J20 is in poor condition, it is clear that the dancing figure is accompanied by other indi-viduals, some seated and others hovering in the air. In the example paint-ed in J19, the figures include a group of musicians playing drums, some seated females, and flying celestials overhead (fig. 16). Painted above the shoulders of the male deity are small dancing couples who are encircled by clouds. Certain details of the male deity are also visible in this paint-ing, including his tall crown and oval halo, long black hair, and series of bracelets worn around his wrists. He wears an elaborate lower garment that is tied on both sides with a thick sash. Suspended over his head is a single parasol (chattra).

24 See Brancaccio (2011, figs. 38, 39, 62 and 63).

25 However, it should be noted that the left subsidiary shrine of Aihole’s Jain cave is filled with many figures such as nāgas (divine serpents), an elephant, and richly adorned couples. It is difficult to tell if the ornamented figures are human or divine.

In the few studies that have examined Ellora’s Jain paintings, this fig-ure is sometimes misidentified as a dancing Śiva.26 This is perhaps not surprising given its general resemblance to paintings of Śiva Naṭeśa found in some of Ellora’s ninth-century Hindu caves.27 However, the multi-armed figure painted in the Jain caves is not Śiva, but Indra—a deity com-monly referred to as a king of the gods in Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist literature.28 In Jain texts, Indra is one of sixty-four deities (also called in-dras) who reign over the heavens. Lord Indra himself is usually described as the king of the first Jain heaven, Saudharmakalpa. For this reason he is also known as Saudharmendra.

Saudharmendra, along with the other indras, are commonly featured in the biographies of the Jinas as active participants during the five auspi-cious events of a Tīrthaṅkara’s final lifetime.29 For example, all Tīrthaṅ-karas are taken to Mt. Meru by the indras to receive their first bath (janmābhiṣeka) and Saudharmendra is typically the first deity to acknowl-edge a Jina’s attainment of omniscience (kevalajñāna). Saudharmendra is also accorded an interesting role at the time of the samavasaraṇa, partic-ularly as recorded in southern Digambara texts. According to Jinasena’s Ādipurāṇa (22.79-80), written in northern Karnataka in the ninth century, Indra is the chief architect of the Jina’s celestial assembly hall. Although other deities join in to help build the sacred structure, they do so under his command and guidance. Upon seeing the completed samavasaraṇa, the gods rejoice in song and dance (Ādipurāṇa 22.55-58). Indra himself is accompanied by a large group of dancing goddesses who slowly make their way into the assembly hall. Similar dance performances are record-ed in two mrecord-edieval Tamil purāṇas—the Śrīpurāṇa (ca. late tenth or elev-enth century) and the Merumandarapurāṇa (ca. fourteenth century).

According to T.N. Ramachandran’s assessment of these texts (1934, 111), Indra dances out of joy at the conclusion of the Jina’s sermon. In addition, Indra asks the Tīrthaṅkara to preach the doctrine to devotees in other

26 See for example Czuma (1968, 282).

27 Paintings of a dancing Śiva can be found on the southern porch of the Kailā-sanātha temple, on the ceiling of the Nandi shrine preceding the Laṅkeśvara temple, and on the ceiling of one of the excavations located above Cave 29. For an illustration of the latter, see Soundara Rajan (1981, 202 and plate CVI).

28 For an examination of Indra in post-Vedic literature, particularly the Mārkaṇḍeya and Viṣṇu Purāṇas, see Gonda (1967). For Indra and his heaven in Buddhist and Hindu art and literature see van Kooij (1989 and 2001). For Indra in Jain art and literature see Nagarajaiah (2002).

29 The five kalyāṇakas are conception, birth, initiation, attainment of omniscience, and final liberation.

parts of the world that are in need of instruction (Ibid., 116). Thus, Indra acts as a facilitator to guarantee the continuation of a Jina’s teachings af-ter the dissolution of the samavasaraṇa.

The identification of the antechamber paintings at Ellora as represen-tations of a dancing Indra—as well as their connection to the shrine im-agery—has not been acknowledged by most scholars as the majority of medieval samavasaraṇas do not include this figure.30 There are, however, a few rare examples of a dancing Indra found among the pictorial pro-grams (now painted over) at Jina Kanchi. For example, fragments of a late fourteenth-century painting depict a dancing Indra among the life scenes of the Jina Vardhamāna (Ramachandran 1934, 163 and plate VII, no. 2). In the seventeenth-century paintings relating to Vardhamāna’s biography, Indra is portrayed dancing out of joy upon viewing the Tīrthaṅkara on a throne (Ibid., 122 and plate XIX, no. 45a). A similar presentation of a danc-ing Indra next to an enthroned Jina occurs in the series of paintdanc-ings de-picting Neminātha’s life story (Ibid., 151 and plate XXVII, no. 74c).

Indra’s dance in association with the samavasaraṇa is also included among the scenes depicting the life of the first Jina Ṛṣabhanātha. Based on Ramachandran’s photo-documentation of these seventeenth-century paintings, a four-armed Indra surrounded by six ornamented dancing fe-males is painted next to a panel of Ṛṣabhanātha’s celestial assembly hall (Ibid., 115 and plate XVII, no. 37). Two plainly dressed male figures, possi-bly the goddesses’s attendants, are painted on the left side of the compo-sition. All of the figures are nearly the same size in this work—a departure from the ca. ninth-century paintings at Ellora that highlight Indra’s im-portance through hierarchical scale. In addition, much of the narrative detail has been eliminated at Jina Kanchi as the figures are painted against a flat red background. This technique was employed throughout most of the seventeenth-century panels. The lack of a detailed setting does not, however, make the identification of the scenes difficult, as each panel originally contained a painted label. According to T.N. Ramachandran (Ibid., 63-64), the seventeenth-century panels and their explanatory la-bels appear to have been based on episodes of the Jinas’ lives as recorded in the Śrīpurāṇa and in a manuscript titled the Vardhamānapurāṇa.

While the inclusion of a dancing Indra in Ellora’s shrine programs links its samavasaraṇa imagery to textual and artistic expressions produced

30 While Nagarajaiah (2002, 24-25) identifies the painting in J19 as a representation of Indra, he does not associate the work with the samavasaraṇa imagery found inside and around the shrine.

further south, Ellora’s programs also diverge from these works in signifi-cant ways. Ellora’s samavasaraṇas are not only three-dimensional in form, but they also focus solely on the center of the sacred structure—the gandhakuṭī and the audience hall that immediately surrounds it. This dif-fers from many southern medieval images of the celestial assembly hall (including those at Jina Kanchi) that portray the seven regions (bhūmi) surrounding the entire sacred structure. These regions, which are de-scribed in detail in the Ādipurāṇa, Śrīpurāṇa and the Merumandarapu-rāṇa, include: 1) an area with palaces, theatres, music halls, temples, and dance halls; 2) a region of water; 3) a region of forests and parks; 4) a wooded area with aśoka, chaṃpaka, and mango trees; 5) a region of flags;

6) a forest of wish-fulfilling trees (kalpavṛkṣas); and 7) a region of celestial mansions.31 These regions are commonly rendered in painted and sculpt-ed images as seven concentric rings around the audience hall.32

Although Ellora’s shrine programs do not specifically include these sev-en regions, some of the componsev-ents described within the individual bhūmis are carved inside the main halls and along the verandas of the ex-cavations. For example, celestial couples and musicians are carved along the low screenwall that marks the entrance into the main hall (fig. 17).

These figures are typically represented alongside relief carvings of small temples or palaces. The types of activity depicted in these reliefs, such as visiting a temple or playing music, correspond with textual descriptions of the first bhūmi where both humans and deities attend concerts and dra-matic performances in honor of the Jina. Musicians with a variety of in-struments are also featured on veranda pillars, suggesting the presence of divine music upon entering this sacred space. Lintels and door jambs in Ellora’s Jain caves are often painted and/or carved with water motifs, such as lotuses, swans, river goddesses, makaras (hybrid aquatic creatures), and nāgas—suggestive of the region of water that surrounds the assembly hall.

Various trees, including aśoka and chaṃpaka, are carved over reliefs of Jinas located on the sidewalls of the excavations (fig. 18) while large mango and banyan trees provide shade and shelter for over-life-sized images of Jain deities (figs. 42, 48). Other sculptures, such as nidhi figures (fig. 95), yakṣas holding large bags of coins, and the carving of jewels and strands of pearls on most architectural elements, contribute to notions of wealth and

31 Ādipurāṇa 22.81-280. See Ramachandran (1934, 106-08) for descriptions of the regions in the Śrīpurāṇa and Merumandarapurāṇa.

32 However, in the painting of Vardhamāna’s samavasaraṇa at Jina Kanchi, the regions are represented in horizontal panels adjacent to the circular assembly hall.

abundance—themes that are also articulated in descriptions of the seven bhūmis. When viewed collectively, the imagery in Ellora’s main halls create a comparable aesthetic experience to that composed and articulated by the authors of these medieval texts. Moreover, a structural connection be-tween the temple’s main hall and these outer regions is also expressed in the layout of the caves themselves as the interior space of the hall precedes the shrine (the gandhakuṭī) with its enthroned Tīrthaṅkara. In other words, the devotee must first pass through the “seven bhumīs” before en-tering the audience hall—an approach that mirrors textual descriptions of worshippers entering a Jina’s samavasaraṇa.