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MONUMENTS & SCULPTURE A.D. 600 TO 1000
{PART N flying Gandharvas with garlands in their hands. Over the dead are the umbrella and a pair of hands playing on musical instruments. Behind the head is a round halo.
The present figure also exhibits the characteristic features of Gupta tradition: half-closed eyes, elongated cars and a beautiful jatá as head-dress with some locks falling on the shoulders. The body is proportionate and graceful. On stylistic grounds, this figure also can be dated to the same period as the seated Rsabha described above, viz. the eighth century.
At Podasingidi are still lying some other Jaina images, including those of Pārsvanátha, Ambikä, etc. Further, Srinivasan has also brought a few images, such as those of Pårsvanátha, Mahavira, Ambika, etc., from the same place and placed them on cement platforms in front of the Panch Bhawan at Anandpur.
During the ninth-tenth century, another important centre of Jaina art and religion was Charampa some miles to the north of Bhadrak railway station, District Balasore, where several interesting Jaina images were noticed. Four of them, showing an individualistic style, are now housed in the State Museum, Bhubaneshwar, and have been published by Dash. One of them is a standing Rşabhanatha in kāyotsarga-pose, with a beautiful jata-bhara, some locks of which fall on the shoulders of the Tirtharkara. Bharata and Bāhubali flank him as in many other sculptures. Further, at the top behind his head are, as usual, the flying Gandharvas. The back-slab of the image is relieved with the figures of eight planets. Below the pedestal is the bull-cognizance.
The remaining three images represent Ajitanātha, Santinātha (plate 85B) and Mahavira, all of whom are distinguished by deep cut-marks on the body. It is difficult to explain the significance of these marks, which do not seem to be accidental. It is quite possible that through these marks the artist has tried to indicate the rigours of the austerities which the Tirthankaras had to go through to attain knowledge and emancipation.
The image of Ajitanatha is seated in a meditative pose, with hands placed on the legs. He has on either side a cauri-bearer at the bottom and a flying Gandharva with a garland at the top. Over the bead are the three-tiered umbrella and the kalpa-vrksa. The hair is arranged as a jad-knot at the top
* Mahesh Dashi, Jaina antiquities from Journa, XI, 1, 1962, pp. 50 ff.
Charampe, Orissa Historical Research
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