Treasures of Jaina Bhandaras

Author(s): Umakant P Shah, Dalsukh Malvania, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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Notes on Art
A Samavasaraṇa113 sculpture in brass, preserved in the L.D. Institute, is illustrated in fig. 170. An inscription on it shows that this was consecrated in V.S. 1534, size 23 cms. x 19 cms. (See also Cat. no. 590). The Samavasaraņa belongs to the Digambara sect of the Jainas, as suggested by the inscription on it.
An earlier bronze figure of a standing Jina, of Digambara tradition, unfortunately broken from below the knees, is a beautiful piece of art, hailing from south India and assignable to c. twelfth century A.D. (fig. 175). Its height at present is 16 cms. (cat no. 573). Stylistically the bronze is similar to a standing Digambar Jaina bronze in the National Museum, also of about the same age.114 Both the bronzes seem to hail from Karnataka.
The L. D. Institute preserves several Jaina bronzes which cannot be discussed here for want of space. But one very interesting old bronze from W. Khandesh is discussed below. A Brass Image of Adinātha from Sirpur, W. Khandesh
The late Agama-Prabhākara Muni Sri Punyavijayaji was presented with a brass image of Ādinātha by the Jainas of Sirpur (Śripur ?) in W. Khandesh. The image (Cat no. 571), along with all his other collections was given over to the L.D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad, according to wish of the late Muni.
The bronze is illustrated here in colour as frontispiece, with detail of Ādinātha in figure 181 while the inscription on the back of this image is shown in figure 181A. The bronze measures 28 cms. at base while its total height is 37 cms. It is in very good state of preservation excepting the fact that the paksa on the right and the yaksi on the left are mutilated and lost with only a part of yakșa-figure still remaining
The inscription on the back, incised in five lines, in Brāhmi characters of c. seventh-eighth century A.D., reads as under :Line 1 :- Gacche Vidyadharāņām nijakulatilakah śrāvakah
118 For Samavasarana, see, Shah, U. P., Studies in Jaina Art, pp. 85-95 and fig. 76; Jaina Bronzes from Cambay, Lalit Kalā no. 13, pp. 31 ff. fig. 1. 114Shah, U. P., A Few Jaina Bronzes From The National Museum, New Delhi, Journ of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, Vol. XXIV, nos. 1-2, (1974), pp. 238-242, fig. 15.
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