Page 158 - Himalayan Art Macrh 19 2018 Bonhams

3071
A COPPER ALLOY JAIN SHRINE
CENTRAL INDIA, 10TH CENTURY
6 1/8 in. (15.7 cm) high

$25,000 - 35,000
This superior and early personal Jain shrine from Central India has a large and handsome
central figure and a rich pine green patina. With only eight planets referenced by the
line of faces above its footed base, a watershed in Indian astrology resulting in a ninth
planet being added in the 11th century, allows us to confidently date this piece to the
10th century (cf. Pingree, ‘Indian Planetary Images and the Tradition of Astral Magic’,
in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol.52, 1989, p.6). Compare it with
another example in the same style with nine faces dated by inscription to 1074 in this
sale (lot 3072).

For this reason, the present lot is also a rare and significant Jain bronze from Northern
India, being among the earlier known examples of a continuous artistic tradition
patronized from Gujarat to Madhya Pradesh until this day. In early pieces, the modeling of
the figure is quite naturalistic, as in the present lot, and gradually increases in abstraction
and ornament as the centuries progress. For this evolution, refer again to the following
lot, dated 1074; see an example dated 1140 in Granoff (ed.), Victorious Ones, pp.200-
1, no.S21; and finally an example dated c.1353, representing the crescendo of the high
baroque style more commonly identified with Gujarat and Rajasthani Jain shrines sold by
Bonhams, New York, 13 March 2017, lot 3108.

The central jina, possibly Mahavira, is joined by four other jinas creating a panchatirthi
shrine image of five Tirthankaras (‘ford-bearers’). Yaksha Matanga and Ambika also
support his throne. Distinct from the following lot in the same style, the subsidiary
jinas are naked here, meaning that this bronze was made for a Digambara patron. The
Digambara communities of Northern India were primarily located in Eastern Rajasthan
and Madhya Pradesh, which is why the bronze has been attributed to Central rather
than Western India, although the distinction is perhaps not so significant given that there
appears to be one general style catering to both northern Jain communities.

Provenance
Barling of Mount Street Ltd, London, 1970s
Private American Collection

156 | BONHAMS