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JAIN JOURNAL
2.
Colossal Image of a Jina
This is the most noteworthy image at Pakbirra and attracted the admiring attention of all the previous authors writing on the site.42 The
made of blackish stone 43 and stands at a massive height of 235 cms. The Jina stands in kayotsarga on a small lotus flanked by cauribearing attendants. He has elongated ear-lobes and his hair is arranged in schematic curls with a prominent uşnişa. The central projection of the pañca-ratha pedestal below bears alotus. The surface of the image is highly polished and contains a crack running diagonally across from the left waist to the right knee. P. C. Dasgupta 44 identified this image with that of Tirthankara Padmaprabha presumably on the basis of the stylized lotus carved on the pedestal, a view which is shared by the present authors. S. C. Mukhopadhyay, 45 however, objects to this identification and points to an unidentifiable design in the lower pedestal as 'emblem', which the present authors failed to notice. He further informs that on the right hand corner of the lower pedestal there was an inscription, two last letters of which are still discernable. 46
The grace and dignity of the image, its massiveness coupled with transcendental expression, places the image unquestionably an echelon above the rest of the images found at Pakbirra.
235cms x 65cms Early 10th Century A.D. Plate No. 9
3.
Jain Tutelary Couple (Adimithuna Mürti)
The male figure, to the right, sits in ardha-paryankasana, with the right hand held in abhaya-mudrā, the left resting on the right knee. He wears a dhoti reaching well below the knee, and elaborate jewellery com
42 Cf., Bevan, op. cit., p. 67 ; Beglar, op. cit., pp. 193-194, Coupland, op. cit., p. 277;
S. C. Mukhopadhyay, op. cit., p. 28. 43 The stone is the usual chlorite schist but the surface of the image, especially the
front portion, has an appearance of blackness. This is evidently due to smearing of ghee and other greasy substance over a long period of time. Cf., here, Bevan,
op. cit., p. 67. 44 P. C. Dasgupta, “Pakbirra's Shrines of the Emancipated", Jain Journal, Vol. V., No.
3, Calcutta, January, 1971, p. 123. 45 Subhas Chandra Mukhopadhyay, op. cit., 1977, p. 30. 46 Mc Cutchion and Beglar who had noticed the lotus on the pedestal of the image
did not mention anything about either the unidentifiable design on the lower pedestal or the inscription. Cf., Mc Cutchion, op. cit., p. 38; Beglar, op. cit., p. 193.
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