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UNIQUE JAINA SITE DEOGARH AND ITS PĀRŚVANĀTHA IMAGES: SOME FEATURES
Dr. Shanti Swaroop Sinha Deogarh in Lalitpur district of Uttar Pradesh was known in past mainly for the Gupta period Vişņu temple (earliest Pañcāyatana temple), popularly known as Daśāvatāra temple. But on the basis of researches and field works done by A. Cunnignham,' Klaus Bruhn? and M. N. P. Tiwari' during the last 30 years, Deogarh came to be known also as an important, rather one of the most prolific, centre of Jaina Art and Culture in India. Deogarh has yielded about 40 Jaina temples of varying dimensions (none of them is huge), 10 mānastambhas (free standing pillars crowned by the figures of Jinas, Ācāryas and Upādhyāyas and showing at its base the figures of yakṣīs like Cakreśvarī, Rohiņi, Ambikā, Padmāvatī) and more than two thousand independent Jaina images of Tīrthankaras (or Jina), Yakşas and Yakṣīs, Sarasvatī, Lakşamī, Kșetrapāla and, above all, the Jaina Ācāryas, Upādhyāyas and Sādhus. The Jaina sites usually developed under collective patronage of Jaina Sarigha and mercantile community, which is true also about Deogarh and Khajurāho. The Svetāmbara Jaina sites of Osiñā, Mt. Abu, Kumbhāriyā and Satruñjaya during gth - 18th century CE in Rajasthan and Gujarat also developed under such collective patronage. However, we have some inscriptional evidences at Deogarh as well to show some indirect association of Pratihāra, Chandella and Kalachuri rulers with the site during 8th and 13th century CE. This is indicated also by two inscriptions datable to samvat 919 (862 CE, in earliest Jaina temple of Deogarh, dedicated to Jina Šāntinātha) and saṁvat 1154 (1097 CE), which refer respectively to the reign of Gurjara-Pratihāra ruler Bhojadeva and Vatsarāja, the minister of Chandella king Kirtivarman. The first inscription of saṁvat 919 (862 CE) found in Śāntinātha temple (Temple no. 12, fig. 01) provides the earliest date for the architectural and art activity at Deogarh in Jaina context."
