Jinamanjari 2002 04 No 25

Author(s): Jinamanjari
Publisher: Canada Bramhi Jain Society Publication

Page 30

with no doorway cut into two portions, and subsequent period of mandapas added have been found. The image of Bāhubali at Pakbira, cubits high, a rare occurrence in Northern India,“ is suggestive of the cult of his fame as the son of the first Jina Rşabha and the reigning King of the South with his capital at Bodhan (ancient Poudhanapura). The image is now worshipped by the Hindus as Bhaironath.
The nearby village of Pankha has a rare specimen of architecture: "a stone slab (showing) a tree of the height of about 2 cubits carved out with a child sitting at the top of the tree. Under the three there are figures indicating the father and mother and the mother is with a baby. This figure depicting a father has got sacred thread and near him stand seven persons. It is difficult to come to a correct appraisal of this specimen but probably it indicates the birth of some Tirthankara.” In the village of Deoli, the Aranatha in situ image, 3 ft. high on a pedestal with the antelope, has sanctum, antrāla and a mahamandapa, and a number of smaller temples by the side of this main temple that suggest that it was a not only a great Jaina architectural conglomerate but also a great atisaya centre.
Thus, the Jaina architectural treasure in Bengal was well developed and survived up to ninth and tenth centuries, and later eclecticism in Hindu religion claimed the Jaina figures as of the Hindu pantheon and worshipped by the Hindus. The Jaina images of Padmăvati and Dharanendra are now worshipped by the Hindus as that of Hara-Parvati. This is further attested by the fact that "a class of Brahamanas in Purulia district now known as Pachhima Brahamans are traditionally taken to belong to the clan of Vardhamana Mahavira. The tribal population of the distriuct of Purulia and the Bhumij community became first imbibed with the ideas of Jainism and then with the Jain creed of ahimsa much affected by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had become Vaishnavas.” 23
Western India
The Jaina temple attained to its most perfect form, a form that also was complete in details and evolved to its farthest limits, their layout and elevation being distinctively and peculiarly Jaina. Dhaky has described an ideal Jain temple of western India, thus: "The jagati (platform), the vast oblong platform with a stairway centrally in front leads to its floor, where lies the sanctum. is attached to the gūdhamantapa with walls. It axially opens into a mukhamantapa. This in turn is articulated to a rañgamaņlapa. This together with
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