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famine conditions, as such, the entire village had migrated to Panihar, At present, the BaraiPanihar complex is cut by both the railway track and the Bombay-Agra Highway trunk road.
Towards the south-west of Barai, there is an ancient group of four Jain temples on a high mound. They are situated in a line without leaving any space between them. The entrances to the four shrine chambers have very ancient features. The dvarasakhas (jambs) are divided into four parts with rope-chain-scroll work and flat phalaka. The bottom portion of the jambs, have the niches of yakshas and yakshis different in each of the four temples. The lalata of the lintel slab contains seated Tirthankaras to whom the sanctuaries were dedicated. All these are ancient feature displayed in the original sanctuaries. Isolated sculptures of yaksha, yakshis that were removed from situ, in the temples, now find place very near the door jambs.
The front walls of these sanctuaries appear to be original. Possibly, all the four temples formed one unit of a Jain sanctuary. Towards the western end, there is a huge mandapa in front. Possibly, it had a closed mukhamandapa with the four shrines at the back. Pieces of pillars are seen here and there and whole structure faces east.
The superstructures of the individual shrines were added later and alignation as we see today is not perfect. Evidently, they were rebuilt without paying attention to chityavastu.
As we see in the Jain sancturaries of the later period, they were originally equal squarish units of side 4 m. with a balcony at the top. They would have been at least 10 m. high with provision of images on the walls, towards north and south.
The back wall of each unit contained standing images of Tirthankaras. They remain in-situ even today. The lower portion of the image upto the navel, is covered upto the ceiling of the lower storey, while the upper storey has the remaining upper portion of the body shoulders, and the head of the image, inserted in a niche on the back wall.
The other particulars of the images are not clearly seen. However, they contain man and a woman as attendants on either side. The srivatsa mark on the chest, the long drawn ear lobes and hair in curls showing the mahapurushalakshanas are clearly seen. As per the iconographic standards, the stretched hands are slightly away from the body. The original pedestals are no more seen.
To have the full view of the image, the upper balconies were provided with steps on
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