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CHAPTER 12]
CENTRAL INDIA
not quite clear from the text of the inscription if the image of Pärévanatha was a loose image in the cave, since the word used is acikarat, i.e., caused to be made, the sense of setting up or installing an image being not there. The inscription might have referred to the now partly-defaced wall-relief of Pärsvanatha (plate 60A).1
1
An interesting sculpture of a standing Tirthankara, having two flying garland-bearers near the head, in front of the circular halo with a lotus in the centre and a border of small rosettes on the outer edge, and two half-seated devotees (heads lost) near the legs, was discovered at Besnagar (Vidišā). It is now preserved in the Gwalior Museum. The very long arms reaching the knees, broad and somewhat rounded shoulders, the modelling of the torso, etc., suggest a date of circa late sixth century. The date is further suggested by the classical hair-dress and treatment of the flying garland-bearers in front of the halo, on two sides of the Jina's head (plate 61).
At Sira Pahari, a hill near Nachna, the site of a famous Siva shrine of the Gupta period in Panna District, Madhya Pradesh, is found a group of Jaina sculptures of the Gupta age, along with a few later ones. Plate 62 illustrates a seated Tirthankara with a large halo behind the head and a pair of flying Gandharvas on each side near the top of the halo. On each side of the Tirthankara is a standing camara-dhara (flywhisk-bearer) Yakşa with a crown having a front-ornament reminiscent of the typical Kushan head-dress from which it is evolved. The treatment of the bodies of these two Yaksas, the ekavali neck-ornaments of the Gandharvas and Yaksas, the vigorous treatment of the Gandharvas, reminiscent of those from Sondni, Aihole, etc., suggest an early Gupta age for this sculpture, circa late fourth or early fifth century. A similar treatment of the motif on the crown is found on the head-dress of the Naga and two or three small standing figures in the famous Varaha-panel in one of the caves at Udaigiri. The treatment of the head and body of the Jina himself, allied to that of Mathură sculptures of circa fourth century, further supports
1 Sec Hiralal Jain, Bharatiya Samskṛti men Jaina-Dharma kå Yoga-ddna, Bhopal, 1962, p. 391; Klaus Fischer, Cares and Temples of the Jains, Aliganj, 1956, p. 6 and plate.
1 Shah, op. cit., fig. 24; negative 786 of the Department of Archaeology, old Gwalior State. These negatives are now with the Department of Archaeology, Madhya Pradesh. possibly stored in the Gwalior Musrum.
⚫ Vikrama-Sert-Grastha (Hindi), Gwalior, vs. 2000 (a.b. 1944-45), plate facing p. 703. • These scalptures are described by Niraj Jain in Andkänta (Hindi), Delhi, XV, 19, pp. 222-23, with two plates. They are reported to be lying in two caves on a hill by the side of a lake Bear the Brahmagical shrines at Nacima. I have described here only those images whose photographs were available with the Archaeological Survey of India, Northern Circle, Agra.
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