Jain Journal 1984 04

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

Page 41

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JAIN JOURNAL
In the extreme north-west corner of the present day Bankura district, there is a secluded temple of Siva on the northern slopes of the Biharinath hill which undoubtedly marks the place where a Jaina religious settlement had flourished long ago. The brick built modern shrine houses a lingam but in the courtyard are two significant images-one of a twelve-armed Visnu and the other of the Jaina Tirthankara Parsvanatha. The former is in a fairly good state of preservation leading to the belief that it was the reigning deity there prior to the installation of the Saivite emblem. The Jaina image is in an advanced stage of abrasion which could happen only through centuries of weathering. In this evidence, it seems very probable that Jainism had its hold on this site before Visnu worship took root there.
At Pareshnath (the name is significant), very near the place where the Kangsavati Dam has been built, unmistakable traces of an ancient Jaina settlement are still extant. The presence at this spot of Hindu images like that of the Surya, the Siva and his bull confirms that this seat of Jainism was also taken over by resurgent Hinduism in later times.
The quiet little village of Dharapat, some four miles to the north-west of Vishnupur, provides yet another example of the absorption of onceprevalent Jainism by more powerful Brahmanical Hinduism of succeeding ages. Here we find a fine sikhara temple dedicated to Krsna but on the walls of which are embedded a stone figure of Visnu (Vasudeva) and two images of Parsvanatha. Close by, there is another statue of the same Tirthankara which, at some unknown period, had been converted into an image of Vasudeva by carving out of the back-slab two additional hands holding the cakra (the wheel) and the gadā (the mace) which constitute two of the prescribed emblems associated with most Vasudeva images. All this iconographic evidence conclusively proves that this original seat of Jaina faith was successively used for Vasudeva and Krsna worship.
The best example of this assimilatory process is however, to be found at Bahulara in the interior of the Bankura district, famous for its magnicfient Siva temple. Recent excavations in the adjacent yard have exposed small brick-built stūpas which, on the analogy of the exactly similar structures found at Kankali Tila near Mathura, have been ascribed to the Jaina faith. The fact that a stone Parsvanatha image is still preserved in the sanctum of this shrine leaves no room for doubt that this erstwhile stronghold of Jainism also fell before Brahmanical onslaught of a subsequent period.