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MAHAVIRA ICON AND INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGY
B. Upadhyay
The later half of the 6th century B.C. seems to be fertile in giving rise to new religious movements in India. Probably all of them were non-Brāhman existing at the time of Buddha. It may be suggested that revolts against thic Brāhman doctrines date from a remote age than the time of Buddha. The reformer of Jaina Church, Vardhamāna, Mahāvīra preached in a spirit against the sanctity of the Vedic lore. Indian Archaeology did not confirm any thing earlier but with tlic advent of the Mauryas we are able to trace step by step the evolution of architecture and of the formative art in India. We must associate with Fergusson that the noblest and most perfect examples of Indian Art are the works of the Emperor Asoka. A most important exponent of Maurya Court ideology in sculpture are the crowning lion figures which were conditioned within a foreign art tradition, but what is described a Lohanipur image of Jaina Tīrthankar belongs to the time of evolution of Indian Art tradition determined in the centuries before Christ. The examination of Lohanipur image shows that Indian folk tradition was in a permanent material hardly conscious of the third dimension and was fully of rounded form. The round volume and flat surface keeps Tírthankar icon at par with Yakşas figures of North India but not in the mass. In the present state of our knowledge, it becomes difficult to ascertain the proper name of the Lohanipur image in absence of any cognizable symbol but the Jaina canon Ācārānga-sūtra clearly states that during the first thirteen months all sort of living beings crowd on the body of Malāvīra who after this period laid aside every kind of garment and went about as a naked ascetic. This is a clear indication that Digambara sect had organised into a permanent branch of Jajnism in the remote period of Indian history. Most probably
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