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Pārsvanātha images in Orissa and Bengal
103
This tiny figure generally has been identified with Amitabha. Therefore, the most common view is that the images of this class suggest a syncretism between Vaisnavism and Buddhism and as such these images should be described as Vişnu-Lokeśvara 26 But this identification does not explain why the majority of these images hail from areas which were once strongholds of the Jainas. Sometimes images of Jaina divinities and the so-called Vişnu-Lokeśvara were found side by side. In view of this fact, the snake-hood canopy of the deity assumes some significance. As on the head of Pārsvanātha, here also the snake often spreads seven hoods. Moreover, crest-figure is not unknown to Nirgranthist iconography. Under the circumstances, the possibility of these images being the result of syncretism between the Nirgrantha and the Bhāgvat cults cannot be ignored.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1. For legends relating to Karakandu, see Jagannath Patnaik, "Jainism in Orissa", in Sidelights on
History and Culture of Orissa, ed. M.N. Das, Cuttack 1978, p. 308 f. The story of Karakandu makes it not very unlikely that Pārsvanātha visited Orissa and played a definite role in the spread of the Nirgrantha-darśana in this region. This possibility notwithstanding, the reading in the panels of the upper storey of the Rānigumph, on the Udayagiri some episodes of the life of Pārsvanātha, related by the Pārsvanathacarita, is not justified (see R.P. Mohapatra, Jaina Monuments of Orissa,
Delhi 1984, p. 15f.). 2. D.C. Sircar, Select Inscriptions bearing on Indian History and Civilization, Vol. I, Calcutta 1965,
p. 213 ff. 3. Debala Mitra, Udayagiri and Khandagiri, New Delhi 1975, p. 43 f. 4. T. Watters, On Yuan Chwang's Travel in India, ed. F.W. Rhys Davids and S.W. Bushell, Vol. II,
London 1905, p. 196 ff. (The figure, of course, seems highly inflated.) 5. Sarat Chandra Behera, Rise and Fall of the Sailodbhavas, Calcutta 1982, p. 178. 6. For a discussion on Jaina antiquities of Orissa, see Mohapatra, Jaina Monuments., passim. 7. Debala Mitra, "Glimpses of Jaina Relics in Orissa", Orissa Review (Monumental Special), 1976,
p. 16. 8. Ibid. 9. K.C. Panigrahi, Chronology of the Bhauma-Karas and Somavaṁsis of Orissa, Bhopal 1961, p.
53. According to a different view, the inscription was engraved in the year 5 of Udyotakeśari's
reign (see Mitra, Udayagiri and Khandagiri, pp. 6 and 68). 10. History of Bengal, Vol. I, ed. R.C. Majumdar, Dacca 1943, p. 36. 11. Pramode Lal Paul, "Jainism in Bengal", Indian Culture, Vol. III (No. 3), 1937, p. 525. 12. R.C. Majumdar, "Jainism in Ancient Bengal", Jain Journal, Vol. XVIII (1984), p. 126 f. 13. Kotivarsa, Pundravardhana, and Tāmralipti have been identified respectively with Bangarh in
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