5.6. Jaina Images in Odisha art

b. Cult Images: The Cult-images rigidly follows canonical and iconographic injunctions. Most of these images were meant for regular worship, while others are shown on outer walls of the monuments. All these figures may be grouped accordingly to their religious affiliation and iconography. 55

Jaina Images It is evident from the relief of Khandgiri and Udayagiri caves that the worship of the images of Jaina Tirthankaras was not popular in Orissa in the early centuries preceding the Christian era. Most of the images of Tirthankaras and their Sasana devis discovered from different parts of Orissa may be assigned to a period between the 7th and the 12th century AD. This indicates that in the early medieval period the worship of Jaina images had become popular and a developed iconography was already in vogue. 88 Among the Jaina images, Risavanatha, Parsvanatha and Mahavir are fairly common while Amra, the Sasanadevi of Neminatha, is known in a variety of forms. The notable sites for Jaina sculptures are Khandagiri, Pancagan, Kakatpur and Banapur in undivided Puri district, Jajpur and Hatadiha in undivided Cuttack district, Balasore town and Jaleswara in Balasore district and Jaypore, Suai, Kecala, Bhairabsingpur in Koraput district etc. Besides the Orissa State Museum, the Jaina temple at Cuttack contains a number of old Jaina images collected from Orissa. It is also interesting to find a small image of Tirthankara placed in a niche of the Jagannatha Temple at Puri." It is quite natural to expect Jaina images on the Jaina temple at Subei. The shrines contain the images of the Tirthankaras with their respective identifying animals carved on the pedestals. Vidya Dehejia identifies a twelve-armed deity as Cakresvari, the Sasanadevi of the first Tirthankara. Another image of Cakresvari is also worshipped in the Bhagabati temple at Jaipur in Koraput district." The Jaina images are not found in other early temples of Orissa except at Subei." Comparatively with the other images of Hinduism Jaina images are rarely found in the walls of the early as well as the later period temples of Orissa. 90