भारतीय कला की प्राचीनतम जैन तीर्थंकर मूर्ति

Earliest Jina image in Indian Art from Lohanipur, Mauryan period, Patna

भारतीय कला की प्राचीनतम जैन तीर्थंकर मूर्ति, लोहानीपुर, पटना, बिहार, मौर्य कालीन।

"The earliest known Jina image, preserved in the Patna Museum, comes from Lohanipur (Patna, Bihar) and is datable to c. Third century BCE. The nudity and the kayotsarga-mudra, suggesting rigorous austerity, of the image were confined only to the Jinas. ....... The reference to the Kalinga Jina (image), once taken away by Nandaraja, and brought back by Kharavela (c. 24 BCE), in the Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela (Khandagiri, near Bhuvaneshvar, Orissa) is also of special interest in this connection. Thus, the Jina image from Lohanipur and also the evidence of Hathigumpha inscription distinctly suggest that the antiquity of Jina may well be pushed back at least to c. 4th-3rd century BCE. (Jaina Art and Aesthetics, New Delhi, 2011, pub. by Aryan Book International and written by Prof. Maruti Nandan Prasad Tiwari and Dr. Shanti Swaroop Sinha)