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APRIL, 1976
It is well-known that most of the Jaina images brought to light from different districts of Bengal belong to about 9th and 10th centuries A.D. The image of Adinatha from Surohar in Dinajpur District, of Parsvanatha from Bahulara, Harmashra, Deulbhira and Siddhesvar in the Bankura District, the bronze-figure of Ambika from Nalgora and a sand-stone Adinatha from Ghatesvara, in the 24 Parganas-all these famous Jaina images belong to the mediaeval period.8
In the above mentioned contexts, the torso from Chandraketugarh, which has the closest resemblance with the Lohanipur Torso, represents the oldest Jaina image extant in Bengal. So the importance of the said image is indeed great.
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Though the torso of the Jina has been dated in the Gupta period, it has an archaic sophistication and intensity which border on the mysterious elements of statuary and decorative formality of proto-historic times.-Editor.
R. C. Mazumdar, History of Ancient Bengal, p. 559.
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