Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

Author(s): Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Mumbai
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 619

154 : SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
specified as) above an image was set up by Sāmādhya (śyāmādhya), daughter of Bhattibhava (and) house-wife of the ferry-man (?) Grahamittrapālita, who had received the command (to make the dedication) from Datilācāyya (Datilācārya) out of Kottiya gana (and) the Vidyadhari Sākhā." The inscription imparts useful information with regard to the contemporary organisation of the Jaina church. The material is red sand stone and it measures 3'.8" x 2.6". Its
find spot is Kankāli mound, Mathura. (Fig. 8.) J. 89 Fragment from the back slab of an image with a portion of the
halo and upper part of a four-handed Nāga attendant to the right. He has a seven-headed snake hood over his head and wears a string of circular beads round his neck. His forehead is also decorated with some ornament. He stands by a column the top of which is touched by his fingers. To the left of this attendant figure is seen a miniature lion which he holds with one of his left hands. The sculpture may represent a part of Neminātha image, showing Balarama as his attendant on his proper right. The halo is ornamented with a lotus in centre and surrounded by row of beads, twisting rope with beads and rosettes at intervals and a third band showing ornamental scroll work. The border represents the scalloped pattern. (For further details and specially iconography of Balarāma fig. pl. see V. S. Agrawal's article in the Jaina Ant., Vol. VIII, No. II, p. 48). The material is red sand stone measuring 1'.21"x1'.21". Its exact locality is not known but it probably came from Mathura.
. (Fig. 9.) J. 666 This large umbrella which must have been installed over
some image or a stūpa, as suggested by Smith (The Jaina Stūpa and other Antiquities of Mathura, A. S.I., Vol. XX, p. 28, Pl. XXII), has been classified as a Jaina antiquity in the Museum records, although there is no definite proof to identify it as such. As an art piece this is one of the outstanding sculptures of the Mathura school. It provides a feast of varieties of motifs to our eyes. In all it has eight ornamented concentric bands with a round hole in the reception of the shaft. The first band is plain and is surrounded by the second band which represents three rows of lotus petals with their