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Jaina Architecture and Images of Western India under ...
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jñāna. The epigraph thus runs 'kevalijñāna sampräptānām jitjaru 'maraṇānam.. Sankalia seems more positive in asserting that these indeed were the Jaina caves. Impressed just as influenced by the peculiarly Jaina term under reference, he further feels sure that symbols carved over the doorframe of one of those caves are Jaina. These are some eleven symbols* of auspicity, of which the Svastika the Bhadrāsana, the Minayugala, the Pūrmaghata and the Darpaņa are clearly recognised. Sankalia finds similarity of these symbols with those carved on the Āyāgapatas on the Jaina Stūpa in Mathurā.”
Now from one of the caves, this author has noticed another group of five symbols on one other doorframe not so far reported. Although in bad state of preservation, the symbols may be identified, in sequence, as Darpaņa Minayugala Pūrņaghata again Minayugala and once more the Darpaņa neither Burgess nor Sankalia mentions them.
Let us therefore, reappraise the problems of the affiliation and date of the Băvă Pyārā no caves. Worship of an Image of a Tirthankara
It is generally believed that an image of a Tīrtharikara must be installed for worship in a Jaina monastic settlement. This belief can be supported by many references through the ages. The earliest known Jina image is from the oldest Jaina temple of Lohānīpura near Patna in Bihar, from where two torsos of Jina image of Mauryan workmanship were found. They are now housed in the Patna museum. The Hāthigumphā inscription of Khäravela mentions in its twelfth line that the king Khāravela of Kalingadeśa conquered Bșhaspati and brought back the image of Kalinga Jina which was formerly taken away by Nandarājā. A splendid image of Pārsvanātha was found in the group of caves on a mountain nearly 20 kms. east-north of Usmanabad in Maharashtra. This image is said to belong to the sixth century B.C. We have come across many Jaina images of the Kuşāna age at Kankalīțită in Mathurā, of which as many as forty-seven images are also preserved in the Patna museum".
