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Lord Mahavira is not constant, being different with the different Jinas who are shown associated with them.
Unfortunately, most sculptures of this type bear no inscriptions and the few short labels found on pedestals (as in a bronze in the Nagpur Museum or in No. A(c) 2329 in the Rajashah Museum, from Deopara, district Rajashahi) do not really help us in identifying this pair. In this connection, the inscription on No 278 in the Mathura Museum (Pl. 12b) is read as Pravati Siddhah. and if this has any connection with Priyakârini and Siddhârtha, the mother and father of Mahâvîra according to Digambara traditions, an identification with the parents may be possible. In the absence of more definite evidence, however the proposition advanced in this paper, though highly probable, is to be regarded as tentative. The evidence that supports our suggestion strongly is the panel at Kumbharia, and Pls. 136 and 12a from Khajuraho, but it is not conclusive.
The figures of a male and female seated in lalitâsana on a common seat, with haloes behind, obviously indicating that they are objects of worship (gods or Siddhas) in a sort of heavenly vimâna, or in a shrine having a sikhara, in which is a Jina seated within a niche, but without the tree (met with in all the other sculptures discussed above), is preserved in the British Museum, London.20 Again, neither the male nor the female carries a child and the pair possibly hold lotuses, in their right hands, while the female carries the citron in her left hand. The pedestal shows three dwarfs lifting the vimâna, and four standing males who seem to be musicians. On the pedestal is incised a label reading Anantaviryyo in early Nagari characters of c. 10th or 11th century A.D. No yaksha is known as Anantavirya in Jaina literature. But Anantavirya is the name of the twenty-fourth future Jina according to the Digambaras21 and of the twenty-third according to the Svetambaras.22 The pair may thus represent parents of the future Jina Anantavirya though it is just possible that Anantaviryyo merely signifies the name of the donor.
On the opposite page is appended a table giving the names of the Parents of the Tîrthankaras of this Avasarpini (in Bharatakshetra), according to the Svetambara and Digambara traditions. It will be seen that the two traditions are almost similar.
