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CHAPTER 211
EAST INDIA
In the group there is also found a representation of Ambikal (plate 157B). In this connexion it may be useful also to mention a bronze figure of Rşabhanātha (plate 158A) from Manbhum (Bihar), now in Asutosh Museum. The rather coarse execution would refer it to a date not earlier than the twelfth century.
Alaura has also supplied a stone image of Santinātha, of about the thirteenth century. The Jina stands in kayotsarga with his lañchana, the deer, shown on the pedestal. Several other Tirtharikara figures may be seen on the stela which has a parasol on top.
Palma in Manbhum District has yielded three stone sculptures, of which two represent respectively the Tirthankaras Ajitanātha (plate 158B) and Sāntinātha. They may be assigned to the eleventh century. The first shows the Jina installed within a shrine which is fronted by a trefoil arch and surmounted by a curvilinear sikhara of the Nagara order. It is evident that the Jaina votaries also erected their shrines in the prevalent style of northern India. This image is of colossal size and shows the elephant, the lañchana of Ajitanátha, on the pedestal. The second image, that of Sāntinātha, is distinguished by his lāñchana, the deer. The third image, also of the same date, has been described to be that of Naminátha, but from the elephant it has probably to be identified as the representation of Ajitanātha. The principal figure is flanked on either side by an attendant with flywhisks. On the stela on each side there are twelve Tirthankaras in four vertical rows of three each.
A JAINA MOTIF IN ARCHITECTURE
A distinctive Jaina iconographic motif is supplied by what is known as caturmukha (caumukha or caumuha) which consists of a square block with four images on its four faces. The images depicted on the four faces are usually those of the four Tirthankaras--Rşabhanātha, śāntinātha, Pārsvanātha, and Mahāvira. Sometimes the figure of the same Tirthankara is repeated on all the four faces. Eastern India has supplied a number of such caturmukhas or four-faced image-blocks belonging to our period. Several examples of this interesting motif of the earlier phase are also known.
Here we may take note of two such caturmukhas, one from Purulia and the other from Deuliya (Burdwan District), both in West Bengal. They are now in the Asutosh Museum of Indian Art. The first (plate 159A) does not appear to be earlier than the eleventh century; the other is perhaps slightly
1 Ibid., p. 90.
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