Mahavira and his Teaching

Author(s): C C Shah, Rishabhdas Ranka, Dalsukh Malvania
Publisher: Bhagwan Mahavir 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava Samiti

Page 448

420
MARUTI NANDAN PRASAD TIWARI
side, a standing Jina, slightly smaller in size than the middle, now headless. These figures provided with trilinear umbrellas topped by disembodied figures beating the drums and nimbuses consisting of lotus petals and beaded border stand on brackets with beaded decorations in front. Instead of a couple, a single flying vidyadhara holding a garland is carved on either side of each flanking Jina. The heads of the flying mālādharas are lost. Above the flying figures, on each side, there appears an elephant with a rider. Beside elephant figures at each edge is carved, in a pillared niche, a seated Jina figure. At the top, in the centre, also sits a Jina likewise housed in a pillared niche. The upper part of the sculpture is designed like the sikhara of a temple with three successive tiers topped by amalaka.
The hair of the central Jina is treated in schematic curls with a small uşnişa. The absence of falling lateral strands, however, does not go against our identification inasmuch as in some other instances, though very few, also this feature is found to be absent owing to the omission. Round the head of the Jina is a halo composed of a blossom circlet and prominent garland-like band. The entire image is somewhat effaced and crude in execution and may well be ascribed to the early twelfth century.
Sambhavanatha, seated
(Acc. No. 1715; 50" x 34", Fig. 4)
Jina is sitting on lotus spread on an ornate cushion. The two pilasters supporting the pedestal are lost and the lion figures are also damaged. The dharmacakra in the present example is flanked by two devotees, below which is carved a very small figure of a horse, the cognizance of the third Jina, Sambhavanātha. The vakṣa-yakşi figures of the two shallow and pillared niches are of course not shown with the symbols as prescribed in the iconographic dhyānas. The two-armed yakṣi of the left croner shows the abhaya-mudrā and a lotus respectively in her right and left arms. The two-armed yakṣa of the corresponding side holds probably a skull-cup in his right hand, while the other hand shows
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