Article: Jain Universal History

Google Books provides John Cort's discussion of the concepts of the cakravartin and Jain kingship. Read pages 98 to 99 of this excerpt from Cort's 'Who is a King?' chapter in Open Boundaries 1998.

https://goo.gl/MKXMzA

A 15th-century sculpture featuring the 17th Jina Kunthunātha or Lord Kunthu and other holy figures. A zoomable image of the small metal shrine is provided by the Eastern Art Online: Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art website, a project of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK.

http://www.jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/object/EAOS.108

The Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, provides a zoomable photograph of a small altarpiece featuring the 17th Jina, Kunthunātha or Lord Kunthu. The metal figure is surrounded by his retinue of divine attendants and symbols of royalty, such as the parasol. Sitting in meditation, he displays typical indications of advanced spirituality, such as elongated earlobes and the bump of wisdom on his head.

http://www.nortonsimon.org/collections/browse_title.php?id=M.2010.1.51.S

The Norton Simon Museum in California provides a zoomable photograph of a metal altarpiece featuring the 23rd Jina Pārśvanātha or Lord Pārśva. Surrounded by the symbols and divine attendants who form the entourage of the Jina image – parikara – Pārśva is presented against a background of many other Jinas, all sitting in deep meditation.

http://www.nortonsimon.org/collections/browse_title.php?id=F.1975.17.22.S

Stone relief of the parents of a Jina. This somewhat damaged sculpture comes from Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, and shows a richly bejewelled king and queen with attendants. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA, provides this black and white photograph.

http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/60005089

Bronze shrine featuring the 22nd Jina, Nemi, and attendants. Attributes of high status are clear, such as the triple canopy, the lion throne and the servants. His spiritual supremacy is signalled by the nimbus around his head, his lotus pose of meditation, the śrīvatsa on his chest and the meditating Jinas on both sides. At the bottom on either side sit his male attendant deity – yakṣa – Gomedha and his female attendant deity – yakṣī – Ambikā. This zoomable photograph is on the website of the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California, USA.

http://www.nortonsimon.org/collections/browse_title.php?id=F.1975.17.23.S

A manuscript painting in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art shows Indra, king of the gods, taking the infant R̥ṣabhanātha or Lord R̥ṣabha, the first Jina, to Mount Meru for his ritual bath. The decorated elephant and canopy symbolise royalty while the lotus flowers are emblems of spiritual purity. The gods around blow trumpets and conches in celebration. A very popular Jain hymn of praise, the Bhaktāmara-stotra has been translated into many languages and illustrated numerous times.

http://collections.lacma.org/node/173269