Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

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

Page 763

284 : SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
image of a female deity-probably Ambikā--and another was just a head of a Tirthankara. These have now been acquired for the Patna Museum as Treasure Trove objects.
These images are quite different from those of the Chausā in their technique, form and depiction and represent a local style of their own. The following characteristic features are noticed in these images :
1. These images are solid cast and have no core of other substance as we find in the Jaina bronzes from Chausā.
2. The images in general have delicacy and charm in them and their various limbs are quite in proportion to their body. Every portion of their body is properly delineated and finely executed.
3. The images do not stand exactly in Käyotsarga posture like those of the Kuşāņa period. Their hands are not stretched downwards exactly parallel to their body-instead their palms and fingers touch their knees.
4. Some of the images have ürņa on their foreheads and all of them are associated with their lañchanas. These peculiarities came in vogue during the Gupta period and continued onwards.
5. The pedestals on which these images stand are not simple like those of the Kuşāņa period. The designs of most of them are complex. They are divided into various tiers and some of them show vertical cuttings forming parallel lines and showing some space in between the two. Further, some of them are decorated with the figures of devotees, which tradition originated probably during the Gupta period and continued onwards.
villages about 5 miles from Chandankiyari) there are some old Jaina images. At Pakbira, about 20 miles northeast of Bara Bazar of Purulia (district headquarter of Manbhum), there are numerous temples and sculptures of the Jaina religion. Among these the most important is a naked colossal figure (74 ft. high) of a Jaina Tirthankara.
At Chhärra, about 4 miles from Purulia, are visible old remains of Jaina temples. At Dharmasthan, nearby Chhārra, there are quite a large number of broken images of Jaina Tirthankaras, some of them very old. All these would go to show that the District of Manbhum was once an important centre of Jainism.