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SOME NOTABLE ŚVETĀMBARA JAINA BRONZES
(Late) Umakant Premanand Shah
The first example to be discussed in this paper (Plate 1) is one of the most beautiful pre-medieval brass images of Jina Rşabha, sitting as the Jina does on a stuffed silverstudded masuraka-cushion placed above a lotus which in turn rests on a simhasana, all elegantly carved. It is in the Jaina temple at Gănghānī, situated about 45 km. from Jodhpur in Rajasthan. The cloth hanging in the centre of the image's simhāsana has lively figures of hamsas placed within small roundels, while the pedestal below has also boldly carved floral and creeper designs. Springing from the two sides of the simhasana are two open lotuses on which once were sitted figures of the Yakṣa and the Yaksi which could not be recovered when this bronze was dug out from the site of the older Jaina shrine. The inscription on the back, dated in Samvat 937/A. D. 880, further informs that it was also embellished with a torana. The inscription' thus reads: line 1 - Om navasu sateşvabdānām saptatří(trim)
śadadhikesvatīteşu Śrī-Vaccha-Lāngalībhyām jyesthāryābhyām line 2 - paramabhaktyā || Nābheya-Jinasyeşā || pratimā” āsādhārdha-māsa
nispannā śrīmaline 3 - ttoraņa-kalitā| moksārtham kāritā tābhyām || jyesthāryāpadam prāptau
dvāvapi Jinadharma-vacchalau khyātau Udyotanasūre-stau śisyau Śrī
Vaccha-Baladevau line 4 - Sam. 937 Āsādhārdhe 11 "Om. In the year nine hundered and thirty-seven, by Śrī Vatsa and Lāngalī, the two senior āryās (nuns), was this image of Nābheya Jina (Rsabha) made together with a torana (and) with deep devotion and for (attaining) liberation (from the transmigratory cycle). The two disciples of Udyotana sūri (who are) devoted to the jina-dharma, (by name) Śrī Vatsa and Paladeva, also obtained (the status of) senior monkhood. Samvat 937, half of the month of Āsādha." The second illustration (Plate 2) represents an exquisite and an elaborately decorated bronze of an unidentified Tirthařkara which was in worship on Mt. Satruñjaya”. (For its safety, it has been, for some years past, kept locked in a safe). In the centre of the bronze is a larger figure of a Jina in padmāsana, while above are three smaller Jina figures in padmāsana and in dhyāna-mudra. So, this represents a rare piece illustrating the depiction of four Tirthankara figures in the composition. The heavenly drumbeaters, other musicians, and garland-bearing vidyadharas are placed in a sort of an oval frame while the Jina sits under an undulating makara-torana. This torana and
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