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ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF TIRTHANKARA IMAGES
It is only terracotta (backed clay) which could survive and a stratigraphical allocation of numerous terracotta objects, usually found in ancient sites, may help us in determining the history of Indian art from the end of the Harappa culture to the advent of the Mauryas.
The Indus civilisation, which, according to the recently accepted chronology, is dated not earlier than the 2nd half of the 3rd millenium B.C., has bequeathed to us a number of sculptures in different materials and numerous seals and sealings with figures engraved upon them. Among these findings is a small statuette, about four inches high, hailing from Harappa, and is very analogous to the Lohanipur Jina image of the Mauryan age. This broken image, of which only the torso now remains, is nude and has two large circular depressions on the shoulder fronts, a feature not to be seen in any Jina image as yet. According to U.P. Shah it probably represents some ancient Yakṣa. Others, however,identify it with a Jina image. But the Harappa script being undeciphered, this attribution is not accepted on all hands, and moreover it has not yet been decided as to what religion this culture indeed adhered to.
It is difficult to say exactly at what date Jina images came into existence. If we leave aside literary references, the first archaeological evidence to a Jina image is found in the Hathigumpha inscription of king Khäravel of Kalinga (Orissa). Who ruled in the Ist or 2nd centurry B.C. and was a Jaina by faith. The epigraph which records the year wise exploitations of Khāravela reveals that in the 12th year he brought back the statue of Kalinga. Jina which had been taken away by king Nanda of Magadha. The Nanda king may be defined with Mahäpadmananda, as the Puranas say that he brought the entire land under his undisputed way and also exterminated all the Ksatriyas."This event may have taken place some time between 364-324 B.C. Although here is a very early reference to Jina image, there is no actual example to corroborate it, this is because Indian artists started making images in permanent materials like stone from the Mauryan age.
The earliest remains of Jina images are available from the Maurayan period. There are two
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mutilated male torsos acquired from Lohanipur and now exhibited in the Patna Museum. Both the images are made of Chunar sandstone and are naked. The larger one retain a high quality of polish, which is a characteristics feature of the Mauryan sculptures, while the smaller one, identical in style and appearence, has no polish. They have both been found with a large quantity of Mauryan bricks and a worn silver punchmarked coin. Jayaswal ascribed the larger torso to the Mauryan period and the unpolished smaller on the Sungan." According to Banerji-Sastri, the unpolished torso probably belongs to the Gupta Period." From their appearences they seem to be standing in the kayotsarga posture, a mudra very common with the Jina images. Since both the torsos very much resemble the Jina images of the later period, they represent some Tirthankaras. However, except for their nudity and their particular posture there is no indication to call them Jina figures, as the most important symbol called the śrīvatsa, which is invariably engraved on the chest of all the later Jina images and is a recognising symbol to differentiate a Jina figure from the Buddha, is absent here.
Of the Sunga period very little is known in so far as the Jina images are concerned. The Hathigumpha inscription of Khäravela, referred to above, besides making mention of an earlier tradition of the Jina images, also furnishes an indirect evidence that the Jina images were there during his times. There are a number of caves excavated in the Udayagiri and Khandagiri (Orissa), some of them are even attributable to Khāravela's queens, but, strange enough, none of the early excavated caves has Tithankara images and where ever they are found they belong to the 8th-9th centuries A.D.12
A very old bronze image of Tirthankara Pārsvanatha or Supārsvanatha, now exhibited in the Prince of wales Mauseum, Bombay, was found at Jondhali Baug, Thana district. In absence of any written record no precise date can be assigned to it. On stylistic grounds Shah dates it not later than circa 100 B.C." This nude image in kayotsargamudra has a small canopy overhead. The figure does not bear the Śrivatsa mark on the chest. Its pedestal is,
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