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CHAPTER 6
Associated Sculptures
In western India, after A.D. 1030, a progressive decline sets in the quality of images as well as figural, vegetative, and geometric decorative art integral with buildings. The Jina images from that period onwards, whether seated or standing, look stolid and expressionless. (The original images seated in ‘padmāsana' in Kumbhāriyā, however, are mostly lost since, after mutilation by the iconoclasts, removed.) What further adds to that deficiency is insertion of crystal eyes, metal-nipples and similar other external impositions necessitated for saving images from wear and tear due to the application of pūjā-dravya' and consequent intensive lustral ceremony. Moreover, the showing of dhoti and ornaments in carving, in cases specially of the images standing in ‘kāyavyutsarga' posture (Plates 218-220), contribute further toward eliminating the barest of art element present. The accompanying figures of the attendants-cāmara-bearers, adorers etcetera-in sooner cases look a little better, particularly in the instances of the Jina images from the latter half of the 11th century (Plate 219). But the conventional and highly stereotyped parikara-frames or figural surrounds associated with the central Jina figure have very little to commend, from the standpoint of art, after the date c. A.D. 1075.
Likewise, the figures of the Yaksas and Yaksīs such as Sarvānubhūti (a Jaina version of the Brahmanical Vaiśravana-Kubera) and Ambikā [Parvati provided with the mango tree/fruit association by literally interpreting the component 'amba' =āmra (Skt.)], either as icons for worship in their own right (Plates 226-227) or else figuring as 'alamkāra-devatā' divinities employed in the decorative context (Plate 228)—falling within the 11th century can be considered tolerably good examples of art (Plates 226-227). Those hieratic images of the 12th and later centuries, for example the Ambikā icons (Plates 229-230), are useful for the iconographic and ritual-worship purpose alone, not so much for art.
In Kumbhāriyā, the images of Vidyādevīs, Yakṣīs, Cakreśvarī, Sarasvatī, Brahmaśānti Yaksa, and Hari-Negameşa occur fairly frequently in the
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