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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Some Aspects of Jainism in Ea stera India
has been unearthed from Achutranjpur close to the Banpur Police station in the Puri district.101 The representation of at least eight Jaina figures dating tenth-eleventh centuries AD indicates that Jainism continued to be a living faith in this region to an appreciable extent.
A systematic exploration report of the Prachi valley (on the eastern bank of the river Prachi, 37 kilometres from Bhuvaneshwar, Cuttack district) reveals that Jainism along with other religious creeds also flourished here. A number of Jaina images are lying scattered in various parts of the valley; even images are kept inside the Siva temples. Two images of Rşabhadeva of the c. sixthseventh century Ad have been kept inside the ruined temples of Svapaneśvara and Nilakaņıheśvara at Adaspur.102 Several other images of the tirthankaras are also found from various places of the Prachi valley. The Archaeological Survey Report states that:
"A miniature image of Rşabhanātha was noticed in the Viśvāmitra Aśrama near Kakatpur and a similar type of small mutilated image was lying near the Bharadwaja Aśrama (both the Aśramas situated in a horizontal line of the Prachi valley). It creates an impression that Jainism of this area was not in the state of decay when Shaktism predominated the place during the 9th century AD and the goddess Mangala (the temple of Mangala near to the site) was worshipped as the Piştha Devi of the valley from that time.
"A very beautiful image of Pārsvanātha is to be found inside the temple of Grāmeśvara of the Prachi valley, five kilometres from Nayāhat. This image has been disfigured and locally called as the Kāmadeva. Pairs of Yakşa-Yakşiņi images pertaining to Jainism is to be found in several sites of the Prachi valley. An image of Yaksa associated with Neminātha, one of the Jaina tirthařkaras, is to be found in the Antaravedi matha (at the place where the Prachi, Saraswati and Manikarņika meet) near Banamalipur of the Prachi valley."'193
The continuity of this faith among the people and the royal families of this region is shown by the discovery of a large number of epigraphical and iconographical representations from the early medieval period onwards. Mention may be made in this connection two Digambara Jaina inscriptions from Udayagiri-Khandagiri caves in Orissa. These two records were issued during the fifth and eighteenth regnal years of Udyota Keśari (c. AD 1040-65) of the Keśari dynasty of Orissa. The first inscription of Udyota