The Jain teacher Neminatha

Neminatha, the twenty-second Jain teacher, is depicted in a manner similar to seated Buddhas. While Buddha images display a range of hand gestures, seated figures of Jain teachers are always sculpted with hands folded in meditation. Some, like this one, possess an auspicious diamond-shaped mark on their chests. Features such as a lotus seat, lions, a halo, and a wheel are seen in Jain, Buddhist, and Hindu imagery alike.

In sculpture, all Jain teachers are depicted seated in meditation or standing in the “body-abandonment posture” as do the small figures at the upper corners of this example. Thus, artists need to add other features to allow viewers to tell one of the great Jain teachers from another. Neminatha is identified by the seated figures at either edge of this sculpture’s base. To his left is a goddess under a mango tree and to his right is her consort. These figures are nature deities (yakshas) with great importance throughout India. Jainism identified certain pairs of nature deities with each teacher.