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
and the Deccan. It is presumed that the bronze was installed in W. Khandesh where this image was found.
This is an exquisitely cast image. The figure of the Tirthankara, who can be identified as Adinatha from the hair locks on his shoulders, with his robust and gracefully modelled body and silver-inlaid eyes, is indeed a beautiful specimen of art (fig. 181). The typical arrangement of hairline on the forehead is known from bronzes and sculptures from Karnataka, of about ninth-tenth centuries A. D.118
The lower part of the yaksa figure, still preserved, suggests that he was a two-armed Kuber-like yakṣa, carrying a long purse with his left hand. The corresponding yakṣi, now lost, can be inferred to have been a figure of the twoarmed Jaina yakși Ambikā. Figures of both the yakṣa and the yaksi rested on fullblown lotuses, that of yakṣa is supported by a beautiful crouching elephant while a terrific looking lion supports the lotus-seat of the yaksi Ambika who has the lion as her mount. The Kuber-like yakṣa is the Sarvanha (Dig.) or Sarvanubhuti (Śve.) jaksa whose vahana is the elephant.
The general treatment of the lower half of this bronze, including the Simhasana and the pedestal, follows some of the traditions of Western Indian Jaina bronzes, 119 and to some of Jaina bronzes from Karnataka and the Deccan. 120 The small figures sitting in a row on the pedestal are the nine planets often seen on Jaina bronzes from W. India.
The modelling of the Jina figure is in a style different from the beautiful bronze from Chahardi, W. Khandesh, in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. This bronze is earlier in the age than the Chahardi bronze as is clearly suggested by the script of the inscription (fig. 181A).
It seems, from all considerations, that this brass image was cast in W. Khandesh and dates from c. late seventh century A. D., or around c. 700 A. D. This was the period when W. Khandesh seems to have been under the Chalukyas of
11 Aspects of Jaina Art and Architecture, paper no. 26, fig. 60.
119 Cf. for example, Shah, U. P., Akota Bronzes
170 Shah, U. P., and Dhaky, M.A. (ed.), Aspects of Jaina Art and Architecture, paper no. 26, fig. 60.
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