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Survey of Jaina Monuments of Orissa
93
Yakșini. Ambikā seated together on a common pedestal. The mango tree visibe at the back carries on its top the image of Neminātha. Attributes in hands of both the figures are mutilated. The entire slab measuring 33cm. x 16cm. is damaged into two pieces.
Bhanpur, a place near Pratapnagari on the Cuttack Bhubaneswar road was once a centre of Jaina activity. Some ten to fifteen years back, a number of Jaina bronze figures were recovered from a place located on the left bank of river Kuakhai which flows close by the village at the time of excavation of a canal. One Sri Kangali Charan Bhatta collected them with great efforts and preserved in a newly built small shrine near his rice mill on the road side of the same village. On the basis of a news item published in daily "The Prajatantra", a local newspaper, on 8.9.76 it is evident that some five Tirthankara images including four Mahāvīra figures and one Anantavāsudeva (Pārsvanātha) (Fig. 79) were under worship in the said shrine and all except the figure of Ananta Vasudeva have been stolen in the night of 27.8.76. A case has been lodged in the Sadar Thana of Cuttack on this issue.
The available Pārsvanātha image (locally called Ananta Vāsudeva) is carved standing in kāyotsarga pose on a circular pedestal formed by the lotus petals on a square base. The square base on the other hand is supported by four legs. It measures (including the pedestal) some 0.16 mx 0.6m x 0.6 m and is carved in round. The canopy of a seven hooded snake protects the head. An auspicious Śrīvatsa mark, a rare occurrence in Orissan sculptures but popular elsewhere, is noticed on its chest. Male and female figures of Nāga devotees with canopy of three snake hoods are depicted on the pedestal. The hairs on the head of the Tirthankara are arranged in curled knots, with the uşnisa at the centre.
The discovery of so much stone and bronze Jaina idols at Bhanapur and Pratapnagari indicates to the fact that there was a Jaina shrine once located somewhere close to these two villages in the past.
The Khandesvar Mahādeva temple built on the ruins of an earlier shrine of village Nasik (Kotian) in Jagatsinghpur P.S. preserves one excellently carved Säntinātha image (Fig. 80) of the Jaina pantheon. Several Buddhist and Brahmanical sculptures also found their way to this temple. The images in question are kept in the thatched mandapa in front of the unfinished Siva temple of recent make. The distance of ten km. from Jagatsinghpur, the Sub-Divisional Headqaurters can be covered by walking or by some locally arranged transport through a narrow road on the canal embankment via-Village Kanakapur.
The image of Sāntinātha, measuring 0.96m X 0.48m x 0.15m is carved standing on a double petalled lotus pedestal below which its lāñchana the deer is visible in front of a kneeling devotee in anjali hasta. The two chcuri bearers standing on elephant backs flank the Tirthankara on the sides above whom are depicted the eight planets (four in each side) in yogāsana, displaying conventional attributes in their hands. The kevala tree and the sacred umbrella, at the top are flanked by flying figures with garlands
