The eight prātihārya
Eight auspicious things that appear around a Tīrthaṅkara — and eight is the count, in every list.
The aśoka tree, the shower of divine flowers, the divine sound, the fly-whisks, the lion-throne, the halo, the drum, and the three umbrellas.
They are how a Jina is told from anyone else in art. Count them on any painted samavasaraṇa and there will be eight.
Measurements and counts
| Number | eight |
|---|
Connected
Bhāmaṇḍala
A disc of light behind the Tīrthaṅkara, bright enough to be looked at.
The halo is given a working function as well as a glory: it tempers a radiance that would otherwise be unbearable, so the assembly can raise its eyes.
| One of | the eight prātihārya |
|---|
Cāmara
White whisks waved on either side of the throne.
A mark of sovereignty borrowed from the courts of kings and given to someone who has renounced kingship. Much of the samavasaraṇa's furniture works this way.
| One of | the eight prātihārya |
|---|
Chatra-traya
Three white umbrellas above the throne, one for each of the three worlds.
Hemacandra reads them as three signs of lordship over the three worlds — the lower, the middle and the upper — stacked above the Tīrthaṅkara's head.
Three-tiered parasols are how a Jina is recognised in painting and sculpture, and they descend from here.
| Number | three |
|---|---|
| Colour | white |
| Read as | the three worlds |
Dundubhi
The divine drum, sounding in the sky without being struck.
It announces the preaching. In the older layer there is no drum and no announcement — a teacher sits under a tree and people come.
| One of | the eight prātihārya |
|---|
Puṣpa-vṛṣṭi
A rain of divine flowers over the assembly, falling stems-downward.
The detail the tradition insists on is that the flowers fall the right way up and are not trodden — a shower that does not become litter.
| One of | the eight prātihārya |
|---|