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५६
Jaina images when Beglar travelled through the district. Some of these Jaina antiquities are still to be seen although there has been a lot of vandalism on them. One of the most important of such village is Karcha about six miles from Purulia. There are a large number of Jaina statues and five ancient mounds, the excavation of which is likely to yield fruitful results. At Bhawanipur which is about one mile to the east of Karcha village an inscription has been found on the pedestal of an undoubtedly Jaina Tirthankara Rishay
nath.
This village Bhawanipur, about 8 miles east of Purulia was apparently a centre of Jainism in the past. The clear imige of Rishavnath has 24 Tirthankars engraved on che sides and there are also the usual figures of Chamiris, Incensors and Yakshis* By the sides of this image under a tree the writer also saw another small image of Chakreshwari Devi. Under another tree nearby in the same village of Bhawanipur there is a Jaina figure of a person on an animal which looks like a Makar (crocodile ). The seated person has a sword in one hand and a bell in the other. The animal in this figure is taken by some as a dog but there is no place of a Kukurbahan image ( where the dog is the mode of conveyance ). Under the same tree there is also an image of Padmavati and Dhanendra. Apparently the image has been torn from its environ“ments.
Another such village is Anai about three miles from Karcha on the river Kasai. Near about Anai village there are other ruins of brick built old temples some with broken images and some without any. Many of the images that had been observed in these Taina temples 30 years back have disappeared by now. The village of Bauridih near Ladurka is on PuruliaHara Road at a distance of 11 miles. It has recently yielded to the efforts of a Purulia historical society five Jaina images three of which are Rishavnath, Chandra
