Jain Journal 1984 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 28

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grained standstone and mica-schist are very rarely used. The images which are generally found in the Manbhum and Singbhum districts are made of the very coarse-grained sand-stone or the schistose rocks which are locally obtainable. The Jaina zone of influence appears to have extended from the south bank of the Ganges and the western bank of Bhagirathi right up to the northern frontier of the jungle country, where the wild Gonds live and which is the province of Gondwana proper. All of these Jaina images are nude, i.e., they belong to the Digambar sect of the Jainas. It is no less significant that these Jaina images are still worshipped by the local Saraks a corruption of the term Sravaka.
JAIN JOURNAL
"The Jaina images discovered in the Manbhum and Singbhum districts include splendid specimens which were found in a village called Chatra close to the town of Purulia, the headquarters of the district of Manbhum. In this village, the majority of inhabitants speak Bengali and the aboriginal inhabitants have also adopted Hinduism as their faith. Large ruins of Jaina temples exist in this village and their materials have been used in the construction of the modern temple of Siva at this place. We find Jaina images used in the decoration of the front facade of this temple which could not have been built before the 17th century.' These images include Vardhamana's father and mother, Santinatha, monumental figures of Parsvanatha and Rsabhanatha and large number of caturmukhas which may be ascribed to the 10th-11th centuries A.D.
Apart from the village of Chatra (Charra) the entire Manbhum and Purulia districts of Bihar and West Bengal respectively are full of ruins of old Jaina temples and sculptures, many of them now appropriated as Hindu places of worship and the images of the nude Jaina Tirthankaras being worshipped as Hindu divinities. Mr. Beglar of the Archaeological Survey of India in course of his tours in 1872 describes these remains as either Jaina or Buddhist. There cannot be a shred of doubt that majority of these antiquarian remains belonged to the Jaina sect. Old temples and early mediaeval stone images of Tirthankaras survive at Balarampur. It is also quite natural that all the three large brick temples, perhaps of Saivite origin, and several stone temples at Boram proclaim their close affinity with the Bengali temples in Bankura and Barakar. Special attention may be drawn here to the fact, that irrespective of religious affiliation all the ancient temples and images of Manbhum, Singbhum, etc. betray strong influence of the art of Bengal, early or mediaeval. "The stone temples at Chatna and Harmashra and the Begunia temples at Barakar show very great affinity to the Jaina temples in the several districts of the Chota Nagpur Division have not been completely surveyed as yet. Most of them originally Jaina temples, which were gradually appropriated for