Jainism in Bihar

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

Page 65

of a year. Some of these images are Jain specimens. Some of the images have been removed by individuals.
At another small village Darika, three miles to south-west of the ruins at Chechgaongarh there are also a number of old ruins, tanks, mounds and cells which are clearly of Jain origin. Beglar had noticed here a Jain statue in black basalt. He mentions "at the first village beyond Chandankiari is a statue of one of the Jain hierarchs in black basalt; he is represented seated cross-legged in the usual fashion, and on his pedestal is the bull symbol. It is on the banks of a large, now dry, tank near the old road from Midnapur to Banaras, which passes through Chas and Para."
At Chharra, about four miles from Purulia, the district headquarters of Manbhum, there are some ruins of old temples. Some of the temples are clearly Jain in origin. There are numerous votive chaityas with mutilated figures, of the Jain hierarchs. It is said that a number of smaller relics have been removed from this area when Chharra had a military colony in the Second Great War.
The writer noticed clear images of Kunthanatha, Chandraprabhu, Dhanendra-Padmavati, Rishabhdeva and Mahavira at this village. At Dharmasthan, a place of worship, a number of broken images of various Tirthankaras and some fine specimens of head were found. At Chharrah there used to be five stone and one brick temples. Out of them only two stone temples are in existence now but without any images. The stones of the broken temples, as is common in this part of the country, have been largely used by the villagers in building up their houses. In the neighbouring village Bhangrah two broken pieces of an image were found and the third piece was brought out from among a heap of old bricks and pieced up. The image was found to be a fine specimen of Rishabhdeva.
The next important group of Jain shrines in ruins are found at Dulmi, twentyfive miles west of Bara Bazar.