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४३८ / जैनपरम्परा और यापनीयसंघ / खण्ड १
अ०५ / विस्तृत सन्दर्भ recording the inner unconscious movement of life within the plastic walls of the body and the other the outer movement of the body by an act of will within the space encircled by that very movement. Both statuettes are dated about 2400-2000 B.C. The head or heads, arms and genital organ of the dancing figure were carved separately and socketed into drilled holes of the torso. The legs are broken. The nipples were cut separately and are fixed with cement. The navel is cup shaped. A hole is drilled on the left thigh. The other static figure presents an adipose youth in an element of "frontality” in which the muscular forms are delineated with careful observation, restraint and breadth of style which is a notable feature of the engraved seals of Mohenjo-Daro. The dancing figure is so lively and fresh that it has no affinity to the dead formalism of the Mohenjo-Daro statuary. It appears to be ithyphallic, lending force to the suggestion that it may represent a prototype of the later day Nataraja, the dancing, form of Siva. All art-critics have declared that for pure simplicity and feeling, nothing that compared with these two master-pieces was produced until the great age of Hellas.
The stone statuette in the element of "frontality" also establishes a fundamental truth about ancient Indian Art, namely, that Indian art is as firmly rooted in nature as it is well established in its social environment and its supramundane origin. It at once represents a divinity with all the virtues of strength and creative activity held under control, not to be thrown out but to be utilized for introspective peace (Santi). This indeed is what we see associated with the Jaina Gods and Tīrthařkaras whose colossal images such as Śravanabela-gola, Kārkal and Veņūr in Mysore arrest public attention. With senses controlled by physical effort, with strength and creative activity restrained metaphysically by the silken thread of Ahimsā and with the physical features (limbs) completely abandoned to the rigours of clime and weather, in the pristine and natal state of absolute nudity the colossal statues of the Jaina Tīrthankaras and Jaina ascetics such as of Bāhu Bali at Sravanabelagola in Mysore have a lesson to humanity that nonviolence is the only panacea for human suffering (Ahimsā Paramo Dharamaḥ). The Harappan statuette being exactly in the above specified pose, we may not be wrong in identifying the God represented as a Tīrthankara or a Jaina ascetic of accredited fame and penance (719 HET). Though its date 2400-2000 B.C. has been disputed by some archaeologists, there is nothing in its style to differentiate it from that of certain terracotta figurines and representations on some of the engraved seals from Mohenjo-Daro. In this connection, Sir Mortimer Wheeler's views on this statuette as published in his INDUS VALLEY
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