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MONUMENTS & SCULPTURE A.D. 600 TO 1000
(PART IV
casuri-bearers, in addition to sculptures of other Jinas like Santinátha, Sumatinätha and Suvidhinatha and figures of Vidya-devis and Jaina Yaksas and Yaksis.
In the Raipur Museum is an interesting representation of sahasta-kuta, with four faces and rising in five tiers, each with rows of seated and haloed Tirthankaras (plate 99).
According to the Jaina Prabandhas, a king Ama, who ruled over Kanauj and Gwalior during the ninth century, built a temple at Kanauj, 100 cubits high, and erected a golden image of Mahavira. He also set up an image of Mahăvira at Gwalior, 23 cubits high, and is further said to have built Jaina temples at Mathura, Anahilavada, Modhera, etc. King Ama of the Jaina tradition is likely to be Prathāra Nagabhata II (died A.D. 883), who is known to have had Jaina leanings. The veracity of this tradition is attested by the early medieval Jaina remains encountered at these places.
Gwalior Fort, which is known for the rock-cut Jaina colossi of the mara period, has a remarkable group of rock-sculptures of Ambika Yaksi and her consort seated in lalitäsana and flanked by female attendants, assignable to circa eighth century. These figures are distinguished by a soft supple modelling and a heavy build and are reminiscent of Påācika and Häriti figures of the Kushan and Gupta periods. Ambika has an oval face with half-closed eyes and an elaborate bun-shaped headdress, round tight-pressed breasts, with folds of skin on the neck and the abdomen, bulging belly and broad hips. The Yaksa has a corpulent figure with ampler dimensions and a pot-belly.
Gwalior Fort has also yielded three loose Jaina sculptures of about
ne time. one depicting standing Adinátha, surrounded by twenty-three Jinas in a seated posture, forming a caturvimsati-pajja, a second depicting Adinātha associated with the Nandiśvara-dvipa and a third representing Pärsvanätba standing under a canopy of serpent-hoods, being lustrated by a group of handsome half-human Nagas, wearing gorgeous wigs. The site of Amrol, situated some distance south-east of Gwalior and known for its early medieval Mahădeva temple, has also yielded contemporary sculptures of Pärávanátha and Adinátha, the latter sensitively modelled and surrounded by small figures
· The Age of Imperial Kanauj, ed. by R.C. Majumdar and A.D. Pwalker, Bombay, 1955,
P. 289.
Klaus Bruba, The Nina Image of Deogarh, Leiden, 1969, figs. 18-18A.
Michael W. Meister, "Ama, Amrol and Jainism in Gwalior Fort', Journal of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, XXII, pp. 354-58.
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