Book Title: Jaina Art and Architecture Vol 01
Author(s): A Ghosh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Previous | Next

Page 139
________________ CHAPTER 8) WEST INDIA Uddayana. Hemacandra further says that these were brought to Patan and the image was installed in a new shrine by Kumarapala, whose leanings towards and patronage of Jainism are well-known. If this contemporary account is true, and it is difficult to believe that a person of the stature of Hemacandra would have cared to fabricate it or narrate from hearsay, then we have to admit that even during the life-time of Mahavira Jaina art and Jina worship had spread not only in MalwaAvanti region but also westward as far as Sindhu-Sauvira. According to the Jaina canonical text Bhagavati-sūtra; 13, 6, 191, Mahavira had gone to Vitabhayapattana to ordain king Uddayana who wanted to pay a visit to Mahåvira. A very old bronze of Parsvanátha standing in the kâyotsarga-pose, with the right hand and a part of the snake-hoods overhead mutilated, exists in the collections of the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay (plate 36A). Its pedestal is missing, and unfortunately there is no record of its original findspot. It bears close affinity in style with a terracotta figurine from Mohenjo-daro. The limbs are long and slim and can also be compared with those of the Mohenjo-daro dancing girl. The modelling of the torso, especially of the belly and abdomen, closely allied to the highly-polished torso of a Jina image from Lohanipur, now in the Patna Museum (above, chapter 7; plate 21A), and the Harappa red stone torso. Thus the bronze is modelled in the Indus style which seems to have continued down to the Mauryan age. The physiognomy is peculiar, also comparable with that of the Mohenjo-daro bronze dancing girl and a few Mauryan and early Sunga mother-goddess terracottas from Mathurā, Hathras and other sites. It is difficult to assign a correct age or provenance to the bronze in the absence of any record, but the stylistic comparisons cited here clearly show that it cannot be later than circa 100 B.C. and may be even earlier. * Ibid., parva 10, sarga 12, verscs 36-93. Jain, op. cit., p. 309; Brhat-Kalpa-Bhasya, II, p. 314, and IV, pp. 1073 f. ; Bhdsya, gdthds 912-13. * U.P. Shah, 'An early bronzo of Parsvandtha', Bulletin of the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, 3, 1952-53, pp. 63-65 and plates. Joha Marshall, Mohenjo-daro and the fandon Cixlization, London, 1931, III, p. XCV, 26 and 27; Mackay, Further Bxcavation ar Mahonfo daro, New Delhi, 1938. II, p. LXXXII 6, 10, 11 and pl. LXXV, 1, 21. Marshall, op. cit., pl. XCIV. 6-8. For some terracotta comparable with this bronze, soe D.H. Gordon. "Early terracottas', Journal of the Indian Sectery of Oriental Art, XI, 1943.

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345