A Survey of Jainism and Jaina Art of Eastern India

The present work is not just a study of Jain art and iconography. It proposes to find out the infrastructure of Jain history in Eastern India, especially in Bengal, from the earliest period to about the fourteenth century A.D. My endeavour is also to make a thorough study of the available sculptural materials from the socio-anthropological view point. It attempts to describe the iconographic features of the images with a view to emphasising the logic underlying the development of icons which appears to have greater historical significance when studies in the light of the great metamorphosis in the religious life in Eastern India, especially after the downfall of the Pala rule. One major difficulty in the study of Jainism in Eastern India, is that the materials sufficient to give a full view of the historical development are taking. I therefore decided to Marshall all forms of available evidence, literary, archaeological, oral, mythical, which may be used for the purpose of objective history of Jainism, Jain Art and iconography of this region. Images have been referred to as a means of supplementing the views put forward in this work. Separate descriptive list has been added to make the work comprehensive.