Book Title: Jain Rup Mandan
Author(s): Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Abhinav Publications

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Page 175
________________ 162 Jaina-Rūpa-Mandana Barabhuji cave referred to above. According to Shri Nahar his figure was obtained from somewhere in Bengal by the late Shri P.C. Nahar. Debala Mitra writes: "A third fragmentary sculpture discovered at Rajghat (Varanasi) and now in the Ashutosh Museum of Fine Art, University of Calcutta, shows a lying female below the pedestal of a lanchana-less Jina figure, the upper part of which is missing ... The cognizance immediately to the left of the wheel of the Vaibhāra specimen is too small to be readily noticed ... the relief is so low that it is almost invisible in the photograph published here ..."251 About forty-three years back the present writer had seen one small sculpture in the vicinity of Temple 12, Devgadh, which showed, as in the image in Nahar's collection, a Jina in padmāsana in the upper panel and a lady reclining in the lower panel. The figures were somewhat worn out. Now the Jina can be identified as Munisuvrata in view of what Debala Mitra proved. Another interesting sculpture, obtained from Kauśambi, and dating from c. ninth century A.D., is preserved in the Allahabad Museum (no. 560). Pramod Chandra, in his Stone Sculpture in the Allahabad Museum, pl. CXXXI, and p. 143, describing it writes: "... The central projection of the pedestal has a cakra flanked by two crouching lions, the recesses at the sides accommodating sunken panels containing images of a pot-bellied yakpa and a yakși. The lotus on which the Tirthankara sits has a narrow rectangular panel in the centre in which is placed the image of a reclining lady .. What Pramod Chandra described as .yakşi, on the left end of the pedestal, seems to be a female devotee with folded hands and the reclining lady mentioned above may be the yakşi Bahurūpiņi. Thus the Jina from Kauśambi referred to above can be identified as Munisuvrata. In the State Museum, Dhubela, M.P. are some Jaina sculptures from Mau and Nowgong. Amongst them is a black granite image of Munisuvrata,252 seated in padmasana, the upper part being damaged. The pedestal contains an inscription saying that the image was installed in samvat 1119 by one Sulbana of the Golāpūrva-kula. The Jaisinghapura Jaina Archaeological Museum, Ujjain, preserves two black stone images of Suvratanatha (nos. 49 and 56) from Ashta and Karcha, with inscriptions in twelfth century characters.253 Tiwari refers to a sculpture of this Jina in temple 20, Khajuraho.254 In the Raipur Museum, M.P., are Dvi-tirthika images from Karitalai having short inscriptions incised at the bottom of pedestals. Amongst them we have pairs of Ajitanatha and Sambhavanātha, Puspadanta and Sitalanátha, Dharmanatha and Santinátha, and Mallinåtha and Munisuvrata. Dvi-tirthikas of perhaps all the 24 Tirthankaras were installed at Karitalai, just as it seems that individual images of all the 24 Jinas were perhaps installed at Narwar, M.P.255 The Central Museum, Jaipur, preserves an elegant early mediaeval sculpture of black stone representing Munisuvrata standing in the kāyotsarga posture. This and another similar sculpture of standing Neminātha were found from Narhad near Pilani, Rajasthan. The Neminātba image is in the National Museum, New Delhi.256 National Museum no. 48.427 is a metal pañcatirthi of Munisuvrata with Varuna and Naradattā as the yaksa and yakşi on the pedestal. The tortoise cognizance is also shown. On the back is an inscription dated samvat 1509. Muni Višalavijaya has published an inscription on a Jina image in the Säntinátha temple, Kumbharia, which shows that the image of Munisuvrata was prepared at the instance of Pahada of Prāgvātavamsa, in samvat 1145= A.D. 1088 (Muni Višalavijaya, op. cit., p. 144). Muni Višalavijaya has also published (op. cit., p. 136) an inscription from Devakulikā no. 6 in the Parsvanátha temple, Kumbharia, which says that an image of Munisuvrata was gifted by Sreșthi Āśadhara in samvat 1276. In cell no. 11 of Vimala Vasabi, there is an image of Munisuvrata with Sarvanubhūti and four-armed Ambikä as yaksa and yakşiqi. The sculpture was installed in samvat 1200 according to the inscription on it. There is also a Munisuvrata Jina in cell 31 of the Vimala Vasahi. In the Mahävira temple, Kumbharia, there is, at present, a stone slab (sila-pasta) representing the Asvävabodha-samalikavihåra-tirtha. The panel originally belonged to the Neminätha temple, Kumbharia, where half of this slab is still preserved. The patta is dated in v.s. 1338=1281 A.D. by an inscription incised on it. A similar patta is also preserved in cell no. 19 of the Luna Vasahi built by Tejpala at Abu. The Lúnavasahi-pata was installed in samvat 1335 by Asapala of Prägvăța caste, according to an Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

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