Book Title: Jainthology
Author(s): Ganesh Lalwani
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

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Page 272
________________ Fig. No, 2. This piece of sculpture (26" in height; 151" in width) except with a few minor alterations is same as Fig. No. 1. Here, only the female figure holds a child in her left arm, who is standing on her lap. At the junction where the tree divides a Tirthankara is seated in dyanamudrā with a divine umbrella overhead. In the lowest part of the otherwise plain pedestal seven male figures are seated with closed eyes and their hands in barābhaya mudrā. Fig. No. 3. Though basically same in presentation as Fig. No. 1 and Fig. No. 2, this sculpture is not only larger in size, but in artistic craftsmanship it is far more superior to them. Finely and deeply chiselled out figures with minute details and the richly ornamented fringes testify to the artistic genius of the time. A row of seated male and female figures (one male figure standing in the centre) in the lower pedestal, some with their arms folded in namaskāra-mudră are wonderfully living even to the present day. It is a matter of great regret that this superb sculpture is broken up to the knee. Mr. Beglar mistook these sculptures (Fig. Nos. 1, 2 and 3) as Buddhist deities. But actually they all belong to the Jaina hierarchy. These sculptural representations of divine couple with a child are a pajr like the Buddhist Jambala and Hariti or the parents of the Tirthankaras. Similar images are found at Deopara, Rajshahi district in Bangladesh, Deograh and Khajuraho in M.P.3 Fig. No. 4. This sculptured stone (361"' in height; 171' in width) is that of Ambika, a Śāsanade vi of Jaina Tirthankara. Dressed in the lower portion and with rich jewellery all over her body she is standing on a full-bloom lotus pedestal in ābhanga posture with her right hand broken and the left hand stretched forward. Pressed under the lotus pedestal is a lion whose wide-open jaw is turned towards the deity. She is flanked by an attendant male figure who is standing at her right side. On her left side once there was a figure which no longer exists. A meditating Tirthankara in lalitāsana posture is seated just above the deity with a divine umbrella overhead. From two sides of the Tirthankara emerge two bunches of leaves with beads or fruits which with two half round curves hang over the deity. On two top corners are two hovering Gandharvas or Vidyadharas, 3 Jain Journal, Vol. X, No. 4, p. 154. JAINTHOLOGY/219

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