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halo behind the head and the Srivat sa symbol on the chest can be compared with those on several known Tirthanka images in the Mathura art. The two deva chauri-bearers, wearing ard horuka, uttari ya and ornaments including the typical mukuta, are also noteworthy. The pedestal shows in the centre the cakra symbol flanked on each side by a lion with the tail raised. One type of the Ramagupta bears the figure of a lion with the tail raised similar to this. .
These Tirthankara images are carved in the round, exhibiting the back view of the Tirthankaras and those of the draped figures of the two attendants. This feature is imitated from the well-known Mathura device. The stone of these three images is the local sandstone of Vidisha. The paleography of the Brahmi script on the pedestals is similar to that occuring in the Udaigiri and Sanchi inscrip. tions of Candragupta Vikramaditya.
During the Gupta Age the art of carving and installation of Tirthankara images continued, although the extent examples from Madhya Pradesh are a few only. The image of Parsvanatha carved during the region of Kumaragupta in cave no. 20 of Udaigiri near Vidisha can be mentioned in this connection. It has the usual characteristics of the Gupta Tirthankara images known from Mathura, Kaushambi and other sites in the north India. A Tirthankara image from Sira hills near Saleha in the Panna dist.) datable to about 500 A.D. is another important sculpture. Mention may here be made of Deogarh (now in the Jhansi dist.). During the Gupta agc Deogarh became an important centre of art. The Dasavatara temple of Visnu, with its artistic statuary, is well-known. Near the Dasavatara temple on the hillock a Jaina establishment was set up during the post-Gupta age. Several Jaina temples, with quite a large number of icons, were built up here upto the 12th century A.D. This Jaina centre at Deogarh did considerable work of diffusing its religious tenets in the region around. The temples and art-relics at Chanderi, Dudhai, Chandpur and other sites indicate this. The Jaina Bhattaraka cult had its predominance at Deogarh for quite a long time.
The rise of the Classical Gupta art of Central India can be associated with the reign of Candragupta Vikramaditya. Under his patronage, monuments and sculptures of abiding beauty were carved at Udaigiri, Sanchi. Eran, Pawaya and Tigwa. These were followed by similar art-relics at Bhumro, Nachna, Tumain, Unchehra, Mandasor, etc. The classical traits are discernible in the few Jaina images of the Gupta age and also of the Gurajara-Pratihara period in the region of Madhya Pradesh. These relics can be seen in the Gwalior, Dhubela and Indore Museums and also at Vidisha, Badoh and Pathari.
The Medieval Jaina art has the usual chraracteristics of profuse ornamentation and iconomcntry. The iconographic details of the Jaina pantheon
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