- Title
- Jain Altarpiece with the Jina Parshvanatha flanked by the Jinas Mahavira and Neminatha (?)
- Date Made
- dated 988
- Medium
- Brass inlaid with copper and silver
- Dimensions
- 14 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 5 1/4 in. (36.83 x 29.21 x 13.335 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.71.26.38
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This sumptuous Jain altarpiece features the Jina Parshvanatha seated on a lion throne. He is flanked by the Jinas Mahavira and Neminatha (?). The Jinas are clothed, indicating that this image triad (tritirthika) was made for a member of the Svetambara (‘white-clad’) Jain order. Parshvanatha was the 23rd Jain savior. He was born in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh in the 9th or 8th century BCE. Along the edges are two of the sixteen Goddesses of Knowledge (Vidyadevis). On Parshvanatha’s right is Chakreshvari who holds two lotuses and a wheel (chakra). On his left is Vairotya (or Vairoti) who holds two snakes, a sword, and a shield. Seated beneath her is the goddess Ambika holding a child and a bunch of mangoes. The missing figure on the opposite side would have likely been the demigod (yaksha) Sarvanubhuti or Dharanendra. Directly beneath Parshvanatha is a wheel flanked by a pair of deer, which was originally a Buddhist symbol borrowed by the Jains to indicate an enlightened teacher. The nine heads along the front of the platform represent the nine planetary deities (nava graha).
A devanagari dedicatory inscription inscribed on the reverse of the base states that the altarpiece was commissioned by the Jain pupil Parshvillagani, a disciple of the Jain pontiff Shilabhadraqgani, in the Mulavasati shrine in Bhrigukachchha (modern Bharuch [formerly Broach]) in 988 CE (Shaka era 910).
