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have their own importance They represent not only the cult images of that period but also furnish some important facts towards Gupta history One of the inscriptions appearing on the pedestals of these images decides the old constroversial question of the historicity of the imperial Gupta king-Ramagupta It informs us that maharajadhiraja53 Ramagupta got these images prepared on the advice of Celuksamana, the good son of Golakyantya and pupil Acarya Sarppasena Ksamana, the grand pupil of Chandra Ksamacarya Ksamasramana who was panipatrika As the inscriptions refer Ramagupta, therefore, they should be dated c 370 AD, and should also be treated as the earliest images showing a Chavarı bearer in their composition Apart from these images it is also important to remember that one of the cave inscription near Vidisa 54 dated in 106 G E also mentions an image of Parsvanatha, perhaps a sculpture in relief which is regarded as lost
The most important Jaina antiquities of the Gupta period are the bronzes, generally found from Causa (Bihar) and Akola (Western India) The Causa bronzes are preserved in the Patna Museum55 and out of six, two represent Iina Chandraprabha two Rishabhadeva
and the rest are unidentified All are seated in dhyanamudra and bear the srivatsa symbol on the chest Apart from iconography, as Misra 56 described, the Chandraprabha images are different from the Rishabhadeva images in composition in these images the Jina has been shown seated in "dhyanamudra on a rectangular double tiered pedestal, between two ornamental pillars forming a niche The tops of the pillars carry grotesquely designed makaramukha Behind his head there is a semicircular sirsa-cakra with pellets on its rim, a halo-formation consisting of lotus-petals and a crescent
53 Since Ramagupta is here called Maharajadhuruja it is obvious that he was not a small feudatory chief The paleography of these incriptions, suggests a fourthcentury date, which makes probable the identification of the ruler with the Gupta ruler Ramagupta, referred to in the Devichandraguptam of Visakhadatta as the elder brother of Chandragupta 11 54 See, JF Fleet, Inscriptions of the Early Gupta Kings, Corpus inscriptionum Indicarum, III, Calcutta, 1888, pp 258 ff, CF RD Banerji, Age of the Imperial Guptas, 1933, pp 104, 106, etc 55 PL Gupta (ed) Patna Museum Cotalogue of Antiquities, Patna, 1956 pp 116-17, CI also, HK Prasad, Jain Bronzes in the Patna Museum', SMIV Golden Jubilee Volume, 1968, pp 275 83 56 RN Misra in Jain Art and Architecture, Vol I,D 125
