________________
88
JAINISM
started from the second half of the last millennium B.C., Jains created beautiful and exceedingly plastic statues of their Tirthankars.
Two such images carved out of stone were found during excavations in Lohanipura (not far from Patna). They belong to the epoch of Mauryas (fourth to third century B.C.). One of them is a male torso, done in strict realistic manner and is magnificently polished. It is considered to be the most ancient iconographical sculptural image."
Note should be taken of the remarkable similarity of this torso with the small torso from polished sandstone, found in Harappa. Both the sculptures portray nude males. Notwithstanding the fact that the hands, heads and feet of the sculptures are broken off, it is seen that the portrayed personages stand fully erect. The holies are portrayed by the Jains in that posture which is called kayotsarga, and it shows the personage at the moment when the soul leaves the body, i.e. at the moment of conversion into a Siddha. Does not this clear-cut similarity once again confirm the belief that some ideas of the peoples of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa subsequently appeared in Jainism?12
There are no known portrayals of nude male figures standing erect, in Indian plastics, except those of the Tirthankars. That is why we can consider the above-referred images, statues as a link connecting the most ancient stage of development of sculpture in 3rd-2nd millennium B.C., with the sculpture of the next 20-25 centuries.
The search for a direct link between the above-referred statues enables us to presume that other forms of plastics of Indus Valley civilisation found their continuation in the sculptures and reliefs, done in India from the fourth-third century B.C. and in the articles of handicraftsmen (small metallic plastics, earthern figurines, children's playthings etc.). Fixed, unchanging form is a characteristic of the Jain sculpture throughout the history of Jain art.
The Jain as well as the Buddhist architecture at the early
11. Bihar Through the Ages, p. 251.
12. Walter Ruben also took note of the similarity of the portrayals of nude Tirthankars and the above-referred figures from the Indus Valley (W. Ruben, Uberlegung zur Geschichte der Religion, p. 226).
