The four-faced Lord
The Tīrthaṅkara faces east. The gods set three images in the other directions, so that every company sees a face.
This is the structural heart of the whole assembly, and the reason it had to be built as an assembly and not a hall. Twelve companies sit in four quarters. One person cannot face four ways. So three replicas are made, indistinguishable from where anyone sits, and the problem is solved by multiplication rather than by seating.
From here comes the caumukha — the four-faced Jina image, one body with four faces looking out to the four directions, found in Jain temples everywhere.
Whether the reader's own seat is the true one is not knowable from the seat. That is not a flaw in the arrangement; it is the arrangement.
Measurements and counts
| Living Tīrthaṅkara | east |
|---|---|
| Made images | three |
| Gives rise to | the caumukha image |
Connected
Dharmacakra
The wheel of the teaching, set before the throne and shining.
One before each of the four faces, so that the wheel stands in front of the Tīrthaṅkara and each of the three made images alike.
| Number | four — one to each face |
|---|