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SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF MAHAVIRA, KUMBHARIA
Photo: Copyright: Author]
JAINA STORIES IN STONE
AT ABU AND KUMBHARIA *
Fig. 3
Dr. Umakant P. Shah, M. A, Ph.D.
The temples at Kumbhāriä contain scenes from the lives of other Tirthankaras like Mahāvira and Pārsvanātha. The ceiling slab containing scenes from the life of Mahāvira is a big rectangular slab, fairly well-preserved, and divided into several sections. Fig. 1 representing a part of two long panels shows, from right to left, the Nativity of Mahāvira. The Queen Mother Trisala is shown lying on a cot, with the newly born Mahāvīra on her side, and attended upon by two
females. The standing goat-faced figure represents Harinegamishin, the commander of Indra, who is associated with child-birth. Really speaking he should not figure in this scene, because his job of transferring the foetus of Mahavira from the womb of Devānanda to that of Trišala was accomplished sometime before the birth of Mahavira. Each scene in this relief bears a label inscribed below it in Devanagari characters of the age. Here the goat-faced god is called "Haranagavesa Indra".
• Continued from Jaina Yuga, Sept. 1959, and November, 1959.
To the right of this scene is a square
