Some Early Jaina Temples in Western India

Author(s): M A Dhaky
Publisher: Z_Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_Mahotsav_Granth_Part_1_012002.pdf and Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_

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SOME EARLY JAINA TEMPLES IN WESTERN INDIA : 293
of the Digambara Church had settled at Prabhāsa; they had, like the Svetāmbarins, a temple to Jina Candraprabha there. A little later, along the same west coast, now eastwards, they founded a temple to Pārsvanātha near Unnatapura (Una).8a At Stambhatirtha (Khambhat), too, they established their headquarters soon after.
When we turn to Rajāsthan, no centre of the stature of Valabhi is encountered at that age or earlier. A completely ruined brick temple of Jaina affiliation at Kesorapur near Bundi is supposed to be a fifth century erection.9 Next of note is the hoard of bronzes from Vațapura (Vasantgarh) in which the oldest inscribed document is the pair of handsome kayotsarga jina images dated to the year 688.9a The image of Mahavira in the temple at Nandiya with its two superb vähikas (chauri-bearers) 10 would come next. The image of Pārsvanātha from Bhatewall is stylistically of the same age.
Significant equally are the evidences furnished by the literary sources. It seems, by the end of seventh century, a Jaina temple existed at Bhillamåla on the strength of Kuvalayamälă (779) of Udyottanasūri who completed this work in the Aştāpada Prāsāda of Adinātha at Jābālipura (Jalor), a fane founded a little earlier by Friar Virabhadra to whom Udyottana refers very reverently. The Bhillamāla temple could be one of a series founded in Gurjaradeśa by Yakşadattagani (Yakşa Mahattara), one of the predecessors of Udyottanasūri. Jaina temples existed at Citrakūta (Chitor) in the time of Haribhadrasűri (8th cent.). Ninnaya of Anhilapäțaka, mentioned earlier, had founded a temple to some Jina at Candrăvati for the benefit of Jālihara Gaccha. At Nāgapura (Nagaur) a Jaina temple
8 DHAKY, MADHUSUDAN and SHASTRI, HARISHANKAR PRABHASHANKAR,
Prabhas-Patan-nań Prăcina Jaina Mandiro (Gujarati) Svădhyāya',
Vol. 3, No. III, V. S. 2023, Baroda. 8a A defaced image (in käyotsarga) of Pārsvanātha datable to the
ninth century has been found from this place and now preserved in Junagadh Museum. For its illustration, see NAWAB, SARABHAI,
Bhārat-nāṁ Jaina tīrtho ane temnuṁ Śilpa-sthāpatya (1942), Fig. 12. 9 Consult JAINA KAILASCHAND, Jainism in Rajasthān. 9a U. P. SHAH has published this image in his Akota Bronzes as well
as in Studies in Jaina Art. 10 KRAMRISCH, STELLA, The Art of India (1955), Fig. 54. 11 This, as informed by MUNI SHRI YASHOVIJAYAJI, is now in the
Jaina temple of Chansma in North Gujarat.