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as Manastambhas having images of four Tirthankaras facing four quarters, carved on their tops or bottoms. Such quadruple images when separately installed were known as Pratimasarvatobhadrika, later more popular as Chaturmukha or Caumukha images. A relief panel, obtained from Kankali Tila, Mathura, shows Harinegamesin seated on a throne which connot be regarded as supporting the existence of the later Svetambara belief in the transfer of Mahavira's embryo. Negamesin is an ancient god, associated with children, whose worship was popular amongst masses.
Terracotta figures of this goat-faced deity are obtained from various sites in North India. Three Vedic mantras addressed to Nejamesa are used in the Hindu Simantonnayana ceremony. The Jainas also prayed to Negamesin for obtaining
children.
Of about the Kushana period, except three or four bronzes of the Gupta and Post-Gupta periods, are the Jaina bronzes discovered from Chausa near Buxur in Bihar; they are an important landmarks in the history of Indian bronzes. There is a bronze figure of standing Parsvanatha in the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, which, according to this writer, dates from circa second century BC. while some other scholars assign it to 1st-2nd cent A.D.
Of the group of caves known as Bawa Pyara's Math near Girnar, Junagadh, at least a few might have been of Jaina association because of the carving of some of the ashtamangalas above the entrance of two caves and on account of an inscribed slab found buried near the entrance of one of these caves. The inscription on the slab belongs to the Kshatrapa period and refers to monks who have obtained Kevalajnana. Digambara Jaina traditions also refer to the existence of a Chandrasala guha near Girnar.
Of the Gupta period, there is a cave at Udayagiri near Vidisa (M.P.) which has an inscription referring to an image of Parsvanatha in this cave. Of the Gupta art a few Jaina sculptures are preserved in the Museums at Lucknow, Mathura, and Varanasi, while a few more sculptures were discovered from sites like Gwalior (rock-cut), Sira Pahari near Nachna Kuthara, Durjanpur near Vidisa. Of these the recent find of three inscribed sulptures of Jaina Tirthankaras is interesting as the inscriptions refer to the donor Maharajadhiraja Ramagupta who has been identified as the elder brother of Chandragupta (the second) Vikramaditya of Indian legends.
The earliest known free standing pillar, known as Manastambha, with figures of four Tirthankaras carved on it, dates from the Gupta period and is still in situ at Kahaun in Uttar Pradesh.
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