Studies in Jaina Art

Author(s): Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 30

A BRIEF SURVEY OF JAINA ART IN THE NORTH
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standing
tent of th. The Rohis
the same site also belong to this period. The style of the dhoti ( lower garment) put on by the Jina corresponds with that of a standing stone figure of Pārsvanātha from Rohtak near Delhi. 1 The Rohtak figure is however a little later in age but it shows the extent of the influence of the art of old Gujarāt and Mārwar. Of about the same period is the large Mahuļi (Baroda State) bronze which is stylistically closely allied to the famous Nālandā bronzes. Other noteworthy figures are a small bronze of Sarasvati from Vasantgadh, 8 two metal sculptures in the Simandhara temple, Ahmedabad (which are possibly slightly later) and three standing bronze figures in Bhinmal, Mārwår. The stone sculpture of Pārsvanātha at Chārūpa, North Gujarät, also belongs to c. Sth century. Two smaller bronzes from Mahudi and the group of rockcarvings at Dhānk, Saurāṣṭra, (Fig. 31 ) belong to this period. 5 The Dhāik sculptures show a Kubera-like two-armed yaksa and a two-armed Ambika yakşi, here attending upon Pārsvanātha.
A fourfold (Caumukha) Jaina sculpture (Fig. 28 ) from the Sonbhandara cave, Rājgir, and a figure of Ādinātha, with the name of a monk Vasantanandi inscribed (c. 8th century A.D.) on the pedestal, from the ruined brick shrine at Vaibhāra hill, Rājgir, are typical examples of Jaina sculptures of the Eastern School. To the next century may be assigned a few more sculptures from the same site and a stone sculpture from monastery no. 9, Nālandā. A four-armed goddess (Fig. 41 ) from this last site probably represents the Jaina yakşi Padmāvati, and is a unique iconographic specimen from North India, assignable to the gth or roth century.
bronzes from Vasantgadh are hollow from inside and filled with a light-weight core. They are at present worshipped in a shrine at Pindawāda near Sirohi.
1 Bhattacharya, B.C. Jaina Iconography, pl. VI.
2 Annual Report of the Archaeological Department, Baroda State, 1939, 6-11, pl. iy-vi. Sankalia, Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute, I, 2-4, 185 ff. Mr. Gadre assigns the fragmentary inscription on its prabbávali to c. 300 A.D. which is certainly incompatible with the style of the big Mahudi figure. No estampage is published.
8 Shah, U.P., A Female Chaurie-Bearer from A koța, Bulletin of the Prince of Wales Museum, I, 1, wherein this as well as two other Tirthařkaras of c. 7th8th century A.D. are discussed and illustrated.
• Three such bronzes of c. 8th century A.D. allied in style and technique to Vasantagadh dated bronzes, are lately discovered by this writer from Bhinmal where they are being worshipped in a Jaina shrine,
5 Sankalia, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, July 1938, 427. ff. Archaeology of Gujarat, 160 ff. It is not possible to assign to the soulptures a date earlier than 7th century A.D.
6 Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report for 1925-26, 125 ff and