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CHAPTER 12
CENTRAL INDIA
THREE INSCRIBED MAGES OF TIRTHANKARAS, FOUND IN A VILLAGE CALLED Durjanpur in Vidisha District of Madhya Pradesh and now in the local museum at Vidisa, have recently been brought to light. The inscriptions appear on the pedestals of the Tirthankaras who are scated in padmasana and dhyana-mudra; the pedestals have a winged lion at each end and a dharmacakra, with the rim facing, in the centre. Two of the images (plates 57 and 58) have their faces mutilated, but they have a male standing cauri-bearer on each side and a halo behind the head. The haloes have a scalloped border on the outer edge and a beautiful open multipetalled lotus in the centre. The halo of the third image (plate '59) is almost ruined, and it is not certain whether there were standing attendants on the sides. But the smiling face of the Jina is partly preserved. The head, with the nose, eye and forehead mutilated, shows ears with long pierced lobes. The Srivatsa-mark is clearly visible on the chest of all the three images. The torso of each Jina shows a well-developed healthy chest which is characteristic of Gupta sculpture. The position of the elbow and arm, held farther away on cach side from the torso, is peculiar and makes a sort of triangle of the whole image, with the head as the apex and the hands as the two sides of a triangle. This seems to be the ideal mode of yogic padmasana posture in this period, at least in Jaina meditations.
These sculptures are especially significant not only of the history of the Jaina church and iconography but also for the history of Gupta art. The inscription of the image on plate 57A is better preserved (plate 57B) than those on the other two. According to this inscription, Maharajadhiraja Råmagupta got these images prepared (and set up) on the advice of CeluKsamapa, the good son of Golakyantyd, and pupil Acarya Sarppasena Ksamana, the grand-pupil of Candra Kyam&carya-Kramana-Sramana, who was a pariptrtka, i... one who used the hollows of his palms as alms-and drinkingbowl.
10. Cat, Three Inscription of Rimagepts, Journal of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, Xvat, 1969, pp. 347.51; also GaiThree muoriptions of RimapexApgraphie Indica, XXXVII, 1970, pp. 46-49.
