About the Artwork
Notice the two figures seated cross-legged in meditation, hands resting in their laps. They are Jinas, spiritually liberated, enlightened beings of the Jain religion. The word “Jina” means “victor” — having conquered all attachments to the material world, they become omniscient, teach others the path to true knowledge, and finally escape the cycle of rebirth.
This sculpture once belonged to the upper part of a doorway within a Jain temple. As the most highly revered beings in Jain belief, only the Jinas are represented within small shrines. On the far left, the goddess Ambika sits on a lion with a child on her knee. She holds a mango branch and is sheltered by the traces of a now-damaged mango tree. The family group between the two Jinas is unidentified, but the presence of children and the fruits held by the parents suggest they were associated with abundance.
In Jain belief, twenty-four Jinas are born during each cycle of cosmic time. Because they have similar iconography — including elongated earlobes, a bump on top of the head signaling their great wisdom, and, in some cases, a diamond-shaped shrivatsa (auspicious endless knot) on the chest — individual Jinas can be difficult to distinguish. It is possible that one of the Jinas depicted in this sculpture is Neminatha, the twenty-second Jina, since Ambika is one of his attendant deities. However, Ambika is also worshiped independently, as a goddess associated with prosperity, protection, and childbirth.
Jinas with Family and Goddess Ambika
950-1050
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Indian
Unknown
Sandstone
Overall: 12 1/4 × 33 × 5 3/4 inches (31.1 × 83.8 × 14.6 cm)
Sculpture
Asian Art
Founders Society Purchase, Sarah Bacon Hill Fund
43.39
Public Domain
Markings
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Provenance
(Nasil Heeramaneck Galleries);1943-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Lee, Sherman E. "A Jaina Relief from Khajuraho," Bulletin of the DIA 23, no. 8 (May 1943).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Indian, Jinas with Family and Goddess Ambika, 950-1050, sandstone. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Sarah Bacon Hill Fund, 43.39.
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