Introduction

‘There is nothing wonderful in my saying that
Jainism was in existence long before the Vedas were composed’

S. Radhakrishnan

The Fifth Chapter entitled “Jain Architectural and Sculptural Remains: Context and Content” deals with the Jain architectural and sculptural remains and their archaeological contexts.

While exploring the archaeological contexts and contents of remains in form of sculptural and architectural materials associated with Jain establishment we find that they are essentially parts of the historical settlements distributed in the study area. If we have a look on the distribution pattern of the so called Jain sites then one can visualize that the major concentration is in and around the Chhotanagpur plateau particularly the modern districts of Purulia, Bankura, partially West Midnapur in West Bengal (zone I so far as the present study area is concerned), Singhbhum, Hazaribagh and the adjoining districts of Jharkhand. The other areas which have partial distribution include the district of Burdwan, though, wide spread distribution of Jain sculptures have been noticed in the districts of Birbhum, South 24 Parganas, Malda and Murshidabad. Before entering into the discussion on the contexts of the remains it is worthwhile to mention that except Bankura the other region covering the districts of Purulia, Burdwan and Birbhum no thorough archaeological survey have been carried out. Therefore our information about the different aspects of historical archaeology of these regions is inadequate. Therefore, our knowledge about historical archaeology and its association with Jain establishments is unsatisfactory. However, in the present survey while exploring the Jain remains we have tried to locate the various contexts of these recorded remains so as to highlight and explain the archaeological basis of our findings.

In the present study area Jain antiquities are found in five different contexts i.e.,

1. Abandoned extant temples or structural ruins containing Jain sculptural specimens along with habitational remains.

2. Modern temples containing Jain sculptural specimens (in amalgamated contexts).

3. Jain sculptural/architectural fragments either beneath the trees with indistinct contexts or in ancient habitational complexes.

4. Jain sculptural/architectural remains presently part of the museum collections with unknown provenances or recovered from ponds.