938 Description of a Colossal Jain figure [Sept. 



Mr. Prinsep states, that it was in the height of its glory a century or two 

 prior to the Christian era, from Kashmere to Ceylon, and M. Remusat, 

 from the examination of Fa Hian's travels, that so late as the beginning 

 of the 5th century Buddhism was flourishing in the same regions. 

 These therefore have little in accordance with the Bawangaj image. I 

 have of course excluded from the catalogue of rock images, that at De- 

 wass, described by Lieut. Conolly (Prinsep's Journal, Vol. 6, page 855), 

 as gigantic, because it is so completely Brahmanical, being a form of the 

 Sacti of Siva, under the name of Chamunda. One of the principal 

 matters of interest however connected with both the rock image and 

 temple, is the date that can be assigned them, if we can depend upon 

 those we meet with on buildings, which I am almost persuaded are in 

 many instances the handiwork of regenerators, not founders. Informa- 

 tion on this head resolves itself into the evidence aiforded by the tem- 

 ple and figure separately as well as conjointly, and it is important to 

 prove the connection of both if possible, for though the worship of the 

 Prabatha, Paduka, or representation of feet, and the numerous emblems 

 of the lion in the recesses, and the inscription at the foot of one of the 

 most modern figures may perhaps, in conjunction with the nakedness of 

 all to induce us, attribute them to Vardhamana Mahavira. The manifest- 

 ly abandoned state of the colossal rock image and the figures in front of 

 it might lead us justly to the inference that it had ceased to be an ob- 

 ject of worship, which if they were one and the same divinity, would not 

 be probable, and I cannot but admit that the nakedness of the figure 

 making it Digambara, the admitted antiquity of this sect, their great 

 prevalence in Rajpootana, (though the Swetambara, according to Lieut. 

 Conolly, are more numerous in Malwa, Op. Cit.) and their devotion to 

 Rishabha, the 1st Tirthankara, and acknowledged chief saint, his extreme 

 height 500 poles, or Dhamish (albeit imaginary) the fact of his primi- 

 tive shrine being at Abu, and a temple and large figure being dedicated 

 to him at the top of a high mountain, Satrunjaya near Palithana* in 



* Palithana, near Bhownagar in Kattywar, is as celebrated a place of pilgrimage 

 for the Jains in the western side of India as Samat Sikhara in Behar and Belegula in 

 Canara ; there are a great number of temples on the hill, and a treasury so large as 

 to be placed under the management of four large bankers, two of whom are inhabi- 

 tants of and reside in Ahmedabad, one in Bombay, one in Jeysulmeer. The Calpa 

 Sutra, page 10, says, (t there is no holy place superior to Sri- Satrunjaya." 



