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Jaina Art and Architecture at Mathurā
Besides depicting the śrīvatsa symbol on the chest,300 the sculptors of Mathurā carved the dharma-cakra on the palm and the sole in the figure of the jina.301
Evaluation of the jina figures of Mathurā: The Gupta period
The plastic art of Mathurā of the Gupta period was the logical outcome of the art of the Kusāņa period; 302 but it also marked an advance upon the latter. 303 The celebrated Mathurā school of sculptural art attained peerless excellence during the Gupta period. This art was truly Indian, both in concept and execution. It was a period of heightened intellectual consciousness;304 and it revolutionised the concept of beauty and expression in art. Restraint, serenity and spiritualism reigned supreme in the plastic art of the Gupta period, and this new concept of beauty changed the character of the figure
f the jina also. The jina figures of the Kusāna period were cold, stiff, disproportionate, heavy and voluminous. They lacked expression and grace.
But the figures of the jinas carved at Mathurā during the Gupta period were slim and youthful; they symbolised movement and flow of energy.305 The images of the jinas - great men who had attained immortal bliss – were differentiated from those of the worldly men.306 Small curly hair, elongated earlobes, long arms, etc., supposed to be symbols of great men (mahā-purusalaksanas), became hall-marks of the jina figures of Mathurā in the Gupta period. 307 The simple halo of the jina figure of the Kuşāņa period was replaced by a more elaborate and profusely ornamented halo in the Gupta period. The richness of the halo signified spread of knowledge from the body of the great
300. MM, nos. B.1, B.28, etc.; JUPHS, pp. 18, 19. 301. Ibid. ibid. 302. A.K. Coomaraswamy, History ..., op. cit., p. 72; S.K. Saraswati, op.cit., p. 131. 303. V.S. Agrawala, Studies ..., op. cit., p. 249. 304. S.K. Saraswati, op. cit., p. 121. 305. R.C. Sharma, Jaina Sculptures ..., op. cit., p. 144. 306. Ibid. 307. Ibid.
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