Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

Author(s): Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi

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Introduction
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obtained in the Akoțā hoard. From Vasantagarh, old Sirohi State in Western India, is found a beautiful bronze figure of Rşabhanātha with an inscription on its pedestal giving the date Samvat 744, i.e. 687 AD. Another similar bronze without inscription and a few smaller ones from the same site also belong to this period. To the eighth century belong the large Mahudi (Baroda) bronze? and also two smaller bronzes from the same place, two metal sculptures in the Simandhara temple (Ahmedabad), the stone sculpture of Pārsvanātha at Charupa (North Gujarat), three standing bronze figures at Bhinmal (Marwar) and a group of rock-carvings at Dhank (Saurastra). A fourfold image of Sabhavanātha, mentioned above, from the Sonbhāņdāra cave of Rajgir and a figure of Ādinātha from a ruined brick shrine at Vaibhāra hill of the same place also belong to the same period. To the ninth century belong Rohtak figure of Pārśvanātha, a few more sculptures from Rajgir, the Padmāvatī and a few other specimens from Nālandã and the rock-carvings of the Navamuni, Bārabhuji and Triśūla caves of Orissa.3
Of the Jain caves of the post-Gupta period reference may be made to one at Badami' and another at Aihole, both assignable to the middle of the seventh century AD. The most notable group of Jain caves are to be found at Ellora among the northern horn of the ridge, although they are not earlier than AD 800. The best known Jain cave temple is the so-called Indra Sabhās which is cut out of solid rock, In its courtyard, there is on the right a figure of an elephant and on the left a monolithic column surmounted by a quadruple image of a Tīrthamkara. In the centre of the court there is a square mandapa and beyond it the passage leading to the lower hall of the temple. At the left end of the passage there are two big images of Sāntinātha, and at the right the stairway leading to the upper hall of the temple. The walls of the upper hall are divided into compartments and filled with sculptured figures of the Jinas.
Of the Jain temples, the one of Meguti at Aihole, erected in Saka 556 (AD 634) by Ravikirti during the reign of the Western Calukyan king Pulakisin II is specially important from the structural point of view. Two small Jain shrines at Than in Saurastra, belong to the
Shah, SJA, pp. 16-17. Sankalia in BDCRI, I, pp. 185ff. Shah, SJA, pp. 17-18. *Brown, LABH, p. 64. $Fergusson, HIEA, II, pp. 1917,