Jina

This elegant and highly-polished black stone figure of a jina is a superlative example of 11th-century Jain sculpture.  Sensuously modeled, the broad shoulders, compact neck with beauty lines, and narrow waist of the seated jinademonstrate the powerful equipoise of the subject.  Also note the fine carving and rendering of the iconographic details, including the delicately-incised curls in the hair individually carved with spiral motifs, the tufted whorls indicating the nipples, a stylized srivatsa at the center of the chest, and foliate motifs at the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.  The cushion is decorated with scrolling foliage and a lozenge containing a playful lion-griffin at center.

A jina, one of twenty-four spiritual exemplars who attained the ultimate goal of liberating their souls from the cycle of death and rebirth, function to inspire and remind the devotee of the tenets of the faith, as well as its rewards.  As Christopher Key Chapple notes with reference to a similar, later example in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the ornate cushion on which he is seated emphasizes both his status as a revered being as well as his ability to flourish even after surrendering all attachments (Debra Diamond (ed.), Yoga: The Art of Transformation, Washington, DC, 2013, pp. 132-135).  He sits in meditation wherein no violence can be envisaged, and meditating on him in turn diverts the spirit away from earthly desire and affliction and towards the transcendent (Jan van Alphen, Steps to Liberation, Antwerp, 2000, p. 43).

Compare the rounded, carved base-cushion and dedicatory inscription on the current work with a contemporaneous marble sculpture of a Jain Svetambara Tirthankara in meditation in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc. no. 1992.131) as well as the 12th-century polished sandstone sculpture of a jina in the collection of Dr. David R. Nalin (Pratapaditya Pal, Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India, Los Angeles, 1994, p. 140, cat. no. 27); also see Bonhams, New York, March 17, 2014, no. 77.

A major presence in south India as early as Buddhism, Jainism is the third major world religion to originate on the Indian subcontinent, where it has been practiced since as early as the sixth century B.C.E.   Although relations between the Hindus and Jains in the Tamil region had become strained by the end of the fifth century, the Jains continued to prosper under royal patronage.  While tirthankaras are documented and revered by Jains, their grace is said to be available to all living beings, regardless of religious orientation.