Some Aspects of Jainism in Eastern India

SR No.: 006725
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Pranabananda Jash
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi
Publication Year: 1989
Total Pages: 170
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

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Jainism in Eastern India
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ing from the mouth of snake is worth-noting.76 K.D. Dutta in the Varendra Research Society Monographs mentions different Jaina images found in the Sundarban area of 24 Parganas. The discovery of numerous Jaina stone and bronze images from the dense jungles of Sundarban (Khari and Chatrabag regions), from Nalgora and Kantabenia, conclusively prove that Jainism confined to be a potent force in the once flourishing Janapadas of the Sundarbans, now wild and forlorn. Of these images, the Pārsvanātha image found in Raidighi is worthy of mention. Standing in kizyotsarga pose, this image, which is in a nice state of preservation, has got twenty-three other tirthankaras shown on the stela seated in all yāna pose.
Two mo e images of Pārsvanātha, one hailing from Deulbhira Bankura, now preserved in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and the other from Kantabenia in the 24 Parganas district are also worthmentioning in this connection. In the first one “the deity is shown seated in the usual yoga posture, with the seven hoods of a snake spread over his head, and his characteristic lāñchana beneath the lotus seat; the cauri-bearing figures on either side are present, but no other Jinas are represented by his side."?? The latter one, dated eleventh century AD, is standing in the kāyotsarga pose with his usual lāñchana and attendants The miniature figures of twentythree other Jinas are also represented in rows of two each, eleven on its right and twelve on its left.78
A colossal Jaina image is to be found in the village Babladihi or Sankarpur under Mangalkot police station of Burdwan district. Though this image is called by the local people as Nyānteśvara Siva-thākura, it was originally an image of the Jaina tirthankara, probably of Mahāvīra.
The existence of some sculptural representations of the Jaina tirthankaras within the enclosure of the brick-temple of Satdeulia in the district of Burdwan almost contemporary with Bahulara in Bankura leads to the inescapable conclusion that it was Jaina too. A small stone tablet found in the Raina village of the same district represents images of two tirthankaras side by side. One of the images represents Candraprabhā as would be evident from the crescent moon upon his pedestal. The other one is in much mutilated form, and thus it can not be identified definitely. Similar stone tablet representing the images of Rşabhanātha and Mahāvīra is to be found in the British Museum.9 Rare metal and stone images of