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Jaina Art and Architecture at Mathurā
review.315 The images of the śāsana-devas and säsana-devīs were also not chiselled. 316
The Jaina art of Mathurā: Post-Gupta period
The lāñchanas of the twenty-four jinas evloved in about the eighth-ninth century AD, and this development gave a new shape to the jina figures in about the ninth-tenth century AD.317 Numerous images of the jinas were carved in the medieval period, including the four-fold image of Vardhamāna Mahāvīra already referred to. In repsect of inconography the post-Gupta jina figures of Mathurā are superior to the earlier icons carved in this city.318 But in the expression of ideas the Mathurā sculptor of the post-Gupta period could not match the excellence of the artist of the Gupta period.319 The postGupta jina images of Mathurā are definitely inferior to those produced in the Gupta period in respect of depiction of expression.320 The medieval jina figures of Mathurā are characterised by depiction of lāñchanas, and some of them show the attendant vaksas or śāsana-devas also.321 The pedestal of one of the tirthamkara figures of Mathurā of this period322 depicts the fish — the lāñchana of Aranātha, the eighteenth tīrthamkara.323 Usnīsa,324 decorated umbrellas 325 and flying vidyādharas326 can also be noticed in the figures of this period. These features were borrowed from the Brāhmanical and Buddhist
315. JAA, I, p. 108. 316. Ibid. 317. JPV, p. 250. 318. MS, pp. 45-6. 319. Ibid. 320. Ibid. 321. Ibid., p. 46. 322. MM no. 1388. 323. Ibid., JUPHS, III, p. 23. 324 MM no. B.19; ibid., p. 24. 325. JUPHS, III, pp. 24ff. 326. MM no. B.19; JUPHS, III, p. 24.
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