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CHAPTER 15
EAST INDIA
WEST BENGAL
JAINISM SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN POPULAR IN BENGAL IN THE EARLY MEDIEVAL period side by side with Buddhism and Brahmanism. Referring to Pundravardhana (north Bengal) and Samatata (south Bangladesh), the Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang says that in both these regions the Digambaras (Nirgranthas) were numerous, though there were also many Buddhist sanghardmas and Deva temples. Though Jainism seems to have continued in popularity in Bengal even after Hiuen Tsang's time, not much Jaina activity is known from either literary or archaeological sources during the succeeding, eighth century. This has led some to believe that Jainism began to decline in Bengal after the seventh century with the rise of the Palas, who were strong champions of Buddhism. This presumption is not correct in view of the fact that during the ninth and tenth centuries a large number of Jaina shrines were built and many stone and bronze images made in different parts of Bengal, though Buddhism became the dominant religion of the state.
In the ninth to eleventh centuries Jaina art in east India was as vigorous and varied as Buddhist and Brahmanical art. In the field of plastic art, the seated image of Rṣabhanatha from Surohor, District Dinajpur, stylistically attributable to the tenth century, has a unique place. It shows the lingering grace and charm of Gupta art (plate 81A). J.N. Banerjea describes the sculpture as follows:
'Shaped in the form of a miniature shrine, it contains the central figure of the Jina, with his characteristic lanchana (bull) below the pedestal on which he is seated in the vaddha-padmasana with his hands in dhyana-mudra and miniature figures of twenty-three other Jinas with their peculiar marks, seated inside small shrines in similar attitude
1 R.C. Majumdar, Jainism in Ancient Bengal', Shri Mahavira Jaina Vidyalaya Golden Jubilee Volume, Bombay, 1968, pp. 136-37; S. Beal, Buddhist Records of the Western World, II, London, 1884.
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