Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

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

Page 685

216 : SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
ruinous condition of the temples shows that they must have been magnificent specimens of Jaina architecture at the time of their original construction. Again at the site of Bari Dudhai, we still find a Jaina temple standing along the side of a place called Akhārā. The latter is a circular structure of low and flat roofed cells, which appear to have been originally some forty in number but of which now about seventeen exist.
Madanpur, a village lying 39 miles south-west of Lalitpur, also contains numerous Jaina structures belonging to the Chandela period. On one side of the village is a Jaina temple with an inscription dated in Samvat 1206 or A.D. 1149 which gives the name of the place, Madanpur. At Marphā, a small fort on the steep hill in Banda district, we find the remains of a great monastic establishment (Mūlasanghavihāra) of the Jainas. The long surrounding area and the existing remains clearly exhibit the flourishing state of Jainism around this region in the 14th century A.D. The fragmentary inscriptions, so far unpublished, do mention the existence of a Mülasanghavihāra there at the time of the Baghel dynasty.
Besides the above architectural remains, there are many other solitary examples of the Jaina architecture scattered all over the Uttar Pradesh, which manifest the popularity of this religion in the area.
Sculpture :
Many excellent images of the Jaina Tirthankaras and other subsidiary deities have been brought to light from all over U.P. which range from the first century A.D. to the present era. This richness of the material, both in quality and quantity, is a great proof that Jainism commanded untiring respect amongst the people of this region from remote antiquity. The sculptural remains of Jainism from Mathura, Jhansi, Hamirpur, Sitapur, Allahabad, Varanasi and many other districts of Uttar Pradesh lend support to the above conclusion.
Evolution of Jaina Statuary :
The earliest archaeological evidence regarding the construction of images of Jaina Tirthankaras is the Hathigumpha inscription of the last quarter of the first century B.C. of King Khăravela of Kalinga,
4 Nigam, M. L. "Impact of Jainism on Mathura Art”, J. U. P. H. S.,
Vol. IX, Part I, plates VI and VII.