Jainism in Bihar

Author(s): P C Roy Choudhary
Publisher: P C Roy Choudhary Patna

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Chandankiari, another village a few miles away from Purulia, the headquarters of Manbhum district, is the place where a large number of Jain antiquities were accidentally found. The collection in Patna Museum of the images of the Jain Tirthankars that were found in Chandankiari makes one of the finest collections of Jain antiquities in India. Most of these images have been identified by the clear Chinhas or special emblems of the Tirthankars. Some of the figures are exquisite from the artistic point of view. The workmanship is delicate and superb. They are all of the 11th century A. D. There are two other villages within five miles of Chandapkiari, namely, Kumbri and Kumardaga, where also there are some old Jaio images. At both theso villages inscriptions have been found one of which is said to have been removed by a local gentleman.
Among the other old Jain remains in Manbhum district, particular mention need be made about the Jain temples and sculptures at the small village of Pakbira, twenty miles north-east of Bara Bazar or 32 miles by Purulia-Puncha road in Manbhum (Purulia) district. They had attracted the attention of the Archaeological Deptt. J. D. Beglar in the Archaeological Survey of India, Vol. VIII, mentions about the remains at Pakbira as follows:
"Here are numerous temples and sculptures, principally Jaina ; the principal ones are collected within a long shed, which occupies the site of a large temple, of which the foundations still exist; the principal object of attention here is a colossal naked figure, with the lotus as symbol on the pedestal ; the figure is 77 ft. high ; Dear it, and along the walls are ranged numerous others, two small ones with the bull symbol, one smaller with the lotus, a votive chaitya sculptured on four sides, the symbols of the figures on the four sides being a lion, an antelope, a bull, and what appears to be a lamb; over each principal human figure on the chaitya is represented a duck or a goose, holding a garland;
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