Book Title: World of Jainism
Author(s): Vishvanath Pandey
Publisher: Vishvanath Pandey

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Page 119
________________ THE WORLD OF JAINISM 107 gth-10th century A.D 'The Rishabhanatha image from Chopda now in the Prince of Wales Museum (Fig. 11) is a fine example of Rashti akuta ait We have reviewed Jaina metal images of the period of about five centuries which reflects the changing concepts of image making of the Jains Until that time the Jain images, as we have observed earlier, are restricted to isolated images of Jinas. Not only that, even from the early sculptures of the Kushana period from Mathura it is evident that there was no distinction between the Digambaia and Svetambara images Both worshipped nude images Even Varahamihira in his famous canonical woil-the Brihat Samhita (c. 5th cent AD.) refers to the God of the Arhats as being young, beautiful, serene, ajanubahu (with long arms) and naked. It clearly shows that at least till the end of the 4th cent AD there was no differentiation in the representation of Jain images They were invariably repiesented as nude About a century prior to the second Valabhı Council the monks had adopted the attitude of prolonging their staya Chartyavasa-n the cities and consequently the gap between the two schisms was widening and thus when the council met in the middle of the 5th century AD the difference was reflected even in the representation of their respective images Subsequent ycars witnssed not only a further hardening of attitude, but as a result of Brahmanical influences on Jain art the Jaina images became more ce came more complex in form

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