Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c10.s2: II.—Jaina Images

Eastern Indian School of Mediaeval Sculpture c10.s2

Language: English

II.—Jaina Images

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Jaina images are very rare in Bengal proper but they occur in large numbers in the Chhota Nagpur Division of Bihar and all over Orissa. In the province of Magadha proper very few Jaina images have been found, though most of the ancient Jaina holy places, like Pāvāpurī near Rajgir and Champānagar near Bhagalpur, are included in this province. In fact Magadha is the holiest place of Jainism as the majority of the Tīrthaṅkaras were either born or died in this province. Jaina images, usually to be found at Rājgir, Gaya, Pāvāpurī or Champānagar do not, generally or in the majority of cases, belong to the Eastern School of Mediæval Sculpture. Many of these Jaina images bear inscriptions in which the date of dedication and the names of the donors are recorded. In the majority of cases the inscriptions belong to the late mediæval period, *i.e.*, to the period which succeeded the Muhammadan conquest of Bihar and Bengal.

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The specimens of Jaina sculpture discovered in Bengal proper can be counted on the fingers. Such specimens are very rare in Northern Bengal. The Museum of the Varendra Research Society contains only one Jaina image,¹ which was discovered at Mandoil near Godagari, on the river Padma, in the district of Rajshahi. They are more common in Western Bengal or Rādha. One of them is now preserved in the Museum of the Baṅgiya Sāhitya Parishad at Calcutta.² This particular specimen was discovered in the village of Ujani, near Mangalkot in the Burdwan District. Mr. K. N. Dikshit discovered several Jaina images in the Bankura District, one of which was found in the village of Bahulara³ and another at Harmashra⁴ in the same District. All of these four specimens are, however, nude, proving that the Digambara sect of the Jainas was preponderant in Bengal.

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¹ *A Catalogue of Archæological relics, etc.*, p. 7, No. (B(a) 1)/15

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² *Handbook to the Sculptures, etc.*, pp. 7-8. See pl. LXXVII *c*.

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³ See pl. LXXVII *a*.

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⁴ See pl. LXXVII *b*.

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During the last twenty-five years I have had occasion to visit many of the important sites in Chhota Nagpur Division in the districts of Ranchi, Manbhum and Singhbhum; the antiquities of which do not appear to have been properly described. In these districts, which now support a thriving population on account of the prosperity of the coal industry, there are numerous stone-built temples and thousands of mutilated Jaina images lie scattered about the region. The temples of this style begin really from Barakar and Dhanbad and end in the jungle tracts of the Rewa State and the Orissa Feudatory States. Their position indicates that there must have been at one time a dense population in this part of the country who were worshippers of the Jinas; because in all of these places Jaina images abound, while Brahmanical temples and images are very few and far between. Buddhist images are never found in this area, and what Brahmanical images to-day or are worshipped, belong to the late mediæval or the Muhammadan period. In Muhammadan histories this tract is included in the very wide term Jhārkhaṇḍ, which was used to denote the jungle country. In the early days of British occupation, before the cession of the districts of Benares, Korā and Allahabad to the East India Company, the Chhota Nagpur Districts along with Sassaram and Palamau formed, what was known as the South-Eastern Frontier of the Hon'ble East India Company's territories, beyond which lay the territories of the Bhonsles of Nagpur. The Jaina images of the Chhota Nagpur district betray a distinct affinity to the specimens of the Eastern School of Mediæval Sculpture, but there is a good deal of difference among them on account of the material used. Flint, basalt, close-grained sand-stone and mica-schist are very rarely used. The images which are generally found in the Manbhum and Singhbhum districts are made of the very coarse-grained sand-stone, or the schistose rocks which are locally obtainable. The Jaina zone of influence appears to have extended from the south bank of the Ganges and the western bank of the Bhāgīrathī right up to the northern frontier of the jungle country, where the wild Gonds live and which is the province of Gondwana proper. All of these Jaina images are nude, i.e., they belong to the Digambara sect of the Jainas. The images of the jungle tracts (Garh-jat States) of Orissa belong to the same denomination. Such images were found in the majority of Orissa States and a large number of them were dedicated in the late Jaina temple on the top of the Khaṇḍagiri hill near Bhuvanesvar, where these images are still worshipped by survivors of the Jaina inhabitants of Orissa who are locally called "Sarāks", a corruption of the term Śrāvaka. The temples of the Chhota Nagpur frontier, i.e., from the Districts of Birbhum and Burdwan will be described in the following chapter.

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The Jaina images discovered in the Manbhum and Singhbhum districts include splendid specimens which were found in a village called Chhatra close to the town of Purulia, the headquarters of the district of Manbhum. In this village, the majority of inhabitants speak Bengali and the aboriginal inhabitants have also adopted Hinduism as their faith. Large ruins of Jaina temples exist in this village and their materials have been used in the construction of the modern temple of Śiva at this place. We find Jaina images used in the decoration of the front facade of this temple which could not have been built before the 17th century. The accompanying photograph will show a fine image of Varddhamāna's father and mother, imbedded in the plaster to the proper right of the doorway and another image of Śantinātha to the left.¹ A fine Jaina image lies in front of this temple, while several others are to be found scattered in the village. Among these specimens we find a large image of Pārśvanātha² the twenty-third and several of Ṛiṣabhadēva, the first patriarch. Chaturmmukhas or chaumuhas, as they are called by Jainas of the present day, were made in a peculiar fashion. Images of four patriarchs occupy the four sides of a miniature temple. In this respect, these chaturmmukhas differ from their prototypes of the ancient period, e.g., the four-fold images or *pratimā sarvvatō-bhadrikā* of the Mathurā School of Sculpture and from the modern and mediæval chaturmmukhas of Rajputana and Central India. They are more or less like the Buddhist stelæ or miniature temples of the Eastern School, specimens of which are described below, in the next chapter. Some of the Jaina images discovered at Chhatra are of a very big size. Attention may be drawn to a very large image of the first Tīrthaṅkara (*Rishabha*), attended by 71 others of the preceding and the forthcoming ages (*kalpas*), which is now worshipped as *Dharmmarāja* by the villagers of Chhatra.¹ Inscribed and dated images, made in Magadha or Bengal have been discovered in the south-eastern districts. Such are the images of Buddha and Tārā dedicated at Guneriya in the Gaya District and Itkhauri in the Hazaribagh District respectively. No inscribed or dated Jaina images or sculptures of the particular type, which we find in the south-eastern districts only, have been discovered. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to assign dates to any of these images, but from their execution it may be gathered that they belong rather to the 3rd and 4th periods of activity of the Eastern School than to the two preceding ones.