FEATURES ARCHIVE

A Universal Being
While Buddhism and Hinduism are perhaps the most widely known of the Indian religions, Jainism is the third most important religion in the subcontinent. It shares the Buddhist and Hindu beliefs in reincarnation, and advocates a life of non-violence that values and respects all forms of life. The key differentiator in Jain philosophy is that its followers do not believe in a creator god. Instead, they believe in twenty-four perfect beings who have successfully followed the path to Liberation and have attained nirvana, the release from the cycle of rebirth.

The Jain view of the cosmos takes physical shape in images of the lokapurusha, which relates the cosmos to the proportions of a human figure. At the core of the lokapurusha is the recognition that humans can reflect the universe, and the universe can be reflected in us; an ancient notion that still finds relevance in a modern framework. Lokapurushas are pictorially divided into three main parts. Adholoka, the lower world and all its varying levels, is represented from below the naval to the base. The inhabited world, or madhyaloka, is represented by a round disk at the waist. It shows the rivers, plants, mountains, animals, and other life forms of the terrestrial world. The upper torso shows the multiple tiers of the urdhyaloka, the heavens. The neck and head form a separate celestial space inhabited by the five most perfect beings who have attained nirvana. These perfect beings, called pancanuttara, may be represented in this example through the gold and silver temples on the figure’s face. Jainism states that each cosmic realm is fluid; humans can move between levels of the lower world and the heavens, based on their actions in the middle world.

This lokapurusha dates from circa 1775 and is one of the finest examples to come to market. It was included in the seminal Jain exhibition of 1994, The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art of India at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Although most lokapurushas involve text, the absence of text in this example is noteworthy. The image therefore relies more heavily on the clarity of the composition to deliver its message. While pictorially complex, it spells out the stories of the cosmos with a colorful visual language.