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APRIL, 1981
Deogarh in the Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh, but now it has been deposited in the neighbouring Sahu Jain Dharmasala Museum (fig. 4). The image, of about the 10th century, stands on a tripartite pedestal. Bahubali as elsewhere, has the śrivatsa mark on his chest. His legs and arms are wound about by a climbing plant; a lizard and a scorpion are also there on his left and right leg respectively. A feature of this image is the representation of a snake clinging to his chest with its tail hanging down the right side over the abdomen. The hair, combed back in jaṭāfashion, falls on the shoulders in the form of unplaited strands. The slightly oblong halo of Bahubali is carved with a blossom circlet and a band filled with small dots. Here again the parasol is single. Bahubali is, as in the previous instance, flanked by two standing female figures holding the ends of the creeper.
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The last sculpture of Bahubali, which comes from Bilhari, situated in Jabalpur district, Madhya Pradesh, shows him standing on a doublepetalled lotus pedestal (fig. 5). The pedestal, like the Bahubali image from Khajuraho, is borne by two rampant lions. From the pedestal hangs the covering cloth, below which is shown a dharmacakra. At the two extremities of the pedestal appear two seated Jina figures. Bahubali has the śrivatsa symbol, and hair arranged in small curls with an uşnişa-protuberance. Behind the head is a halo showing a blossomcirclet only. A creeper consisting of meandering stems and leaves entwines his legs, arms and chest. Above the head of Bahubali is a much damaged triple parasol supported by a stick and surmounted by a drum, struck by a figure whose body is not shown." On both sides of Bahubali, on separate lotus pedestals, in tribhanga pose, stand the two female attendant figures holding the ends of the climbing plant.Above these figures there appear, on each flank, six small standing Jina figures, one above the other. Above each shoulder of Bahubali are also sculptured, in a vertical row, three diminutive seated Jina figures. All the Jina figures are shown on separate lotus pedestals. Sporadically represented small Jina figures, the lion-pedestal, the nimbus and the triple parasol surmounted by a drum-beater-all, like those of the Bahubali image from Khajuraho, betray a definite bearing of the iconography of the contemporary Jina images on the présent image. The sculpture about 47" in height is hewn out of buff-coloured sandstone and can tentatively be ascribed to the 11th century on the basis both of style and iconography.
⚫ However, it is an exception which shows a triple parasol, instead of a single one, surmounted by a drum-bearer. Another instance of such exception is available in another figure, rather small, of Bahubali from the same place.
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