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MONUMENTS & SCULPTURE A.D. 600 TO 1000
{PART IV' ardhaparyanka-posture, holding a baby in her lap and another child standing close by and touching her right knee. Below her is also shown her mount lion. She is flanked on either side by a camara-dhara, Gapeba and Kubera. On the two sides of Jaina Neminātha on the top are reprosentod Krona (as Vispu) and Balarama, for all three, according to tradition, belonged to one and the same family. Besides these, the three are also included in Jainism amongst sixtythree salaka-purusas as a Tirthankara, a Balabhadra and Vasudeva. The upper part also shows four more divine figures in flying-posture. At the bottom are sculptured eight female devotees. The relief (plate 79) undoubtedly is the most significant amongst the medieval icons expressing a successful fusion of Jaina and Brahmanical mythological concepts.
The State Museum at Lucknow has in its collection representative sculptures from almost all parts of Uttar Pradesh. While the Jaina images belonging to the post-Gupta and early medieval periods here are many, only a few of thom appear to be important. Of the Tirthankara icons a rare figure is of Suvidhinātha, as the pedestal bears a fish-symbol between two lions representing sinhhasana. The Jina is seated in the usual posture with tiny figures of Yakşa and Yakşi below, camara-dharas on the sides and Vidyadhara-yugalas on the top flanking the triple chatras. A drum above the chatras represents the devadundubhi. This image was found at Sråvasti (plate 80A).
A valuable structural fragment, perhaps originally forming a part of some torana-architrave of Mathura, bears the relief of a deya-kulika with a figure of a Jina inside and the projecting face of a makara on one side (plate 80B). The sikhara of the deva-kulika, though crudely executed, has a tri-ratha form divided into bhūmis and a frontal pediment (sukanāsa) marked with a trefoil arch.
Other interesting Jaina sculptures of Pratihāra period in the Lucknow Museum are a few Tirthankara figures in kayotsarga-posture and a Pärśvanātha image from Srāvasti and some from Bateshwar near Agra, including a few sarvatobhadrika pratimās,
Jaina images of north India are not many in number in the Allahabad Museum, and most of them are from Kaušambi. An interesting example of early medieval Jaina iconography is the Jaina tutelary couple datable to circa eighth century from Lachhagir in District Allahabad. Carved on a sandstone slab, it represents seated male and female divinities in ardhaparyankdsana under an asoka-tree, which has a small Jina figure in the oentre just above the trunk.
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