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Architectural and Iconographic Trends
271 directional. As seen earlier, the trend of depicting the auspicious dreams on the uttaranga of the doorway was first initiated at Ellora from where it spread to western and central India and formed a general feature of a number of the Jaina temples.
LOOSE JAINA ICONS
It is not our purpose to analyse all the loose Jaina icons of the region, but a study of some of the relevant icons would be helpful in corroborating the evidences from the caves. The earliest loose icons from the region are perhaps bronzes from Rajanapur khinkhini in the Murtizapur taluka of Akola district. While some icons can be dated as early as 7th-8th century CE, the rest date to the period ranging between 9th to 13th century CE. All these bronzes belong to Digambara sect. The earliest icons are of the Karanataka school (Jain, Balachandra 1955). A large number of icons are scattered in different parts, while some of the loose icons from Daulatabad, Ter, Dhule, Jalgaon, Erandol, Nasik, Ankai and Anjaneri, are housed in various museums like Rajwade Samsodhan Mandala, Dhule, the Regional Museum, Nasik and Prince of Wales Museum, Mumbai. Most of these icons reveal similar iconographic and stylistic trends as seen in the icons from the caves. None of the loose icons from these sites date before the 11th century CE. They all follow the trends of later period. All the seated Jina figures are in padmasana. The śrivatsa is present in almost all the icons. The throne, wherever present, shows elephants, lions and wheel (Plate 195). The icons dating from late 12th century CE from Khandesh region show only plain cushion, instead of the throne. The icons from Ankai have elephants with or without pitchers in the parikara top. All the Jina figures from Ankai have hair on the shoulders (Plate 196), the trend also found in rock-cut icons of Ankai and Mohida. The trend of colossal icons continued till about 16th 17th century CE as evident at Jintur in Parbhani district, where icons of Rşabhanatha, Neminatha, Parsvanātha, Santinatha and Mahāvira, all seated in padmāsana with lañchhana below are housed in fort-like structure on the top of a hill. These icons are over five-six feet high. However, unlike caves, a standing figure of Ambika has come to light from Bhandak (Chitale 1990). Other exception is occurrence of a chauvisi as early as 8th century CE from Chahardi in Jalgaon district.
Like the caves, most of the loose icons belong to Digambara sect, while a few Svetambara icons have also come to light. The Svetāmbara icons are mainly found in the northern Maharashtra, from Dhule and Jalgaon districts, which borders Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. A number icons found from the fort of Daulatabad are Svetāmbara, mainly because of prominent position of Svetāmbara Jainas of Gujarat at this site (Plate 197). Most of these icons post-date late 12th century CE. It clearly indicates influences from western India in later period, where Svetāmbara Jainism was strong. The only exception is the aforementioned bronze chauvisi from Chahardi, Jalgaon district, which is a Svetambara icon and is dated to gth century on the basis of the palaeography of the inscription on the back (Chakravarti 1952-53). In the light of the above evidences, an interesting feature can be noticed. While the Svetambara icons distinctly show the end of the robe on the pedestal in the case of the seated figures of the Jina (Plate 198), none of the Digambara icons of seated Jina at any of the sites show nudity. It is only the standing icons, which makes it obvious that they belong to the Digambara sect. But the mūlanāyaka of the tritirthikā on the left sidewall of G at the Mangi peak clearly shows
