Adilabad, July 15 : A rare and artistically unique 9th-century sculpture of the Jain Tirthankara Parshvantha has been found by the members of Kotha Telangana Charitra Brundham (KTCB) here in Chand village of Adilabad district on Wednesday. Found in a dilapidated condition, this historic artifact strongly suggests that the village was once a prominent center of Jainism.
The headless stone sculpture was identified by Prithviraj Roddawar, a research member of the historical group KTCB, alongside associates Sai Raj Kamble and Katturi Subhash.
Sriramoju Haragopal, the group’s convener, stated that a Parshvanatha sculpture with these specific iconographic features has never been found in Telangana before, with similar pieces previously recorded only in Bihar and Maharashtra.
The sculpture depicts the deity in the ardha-padmasana (half-lotus) pose with a serpent coiled around his back. Its pedestal features a Dharmachakra (wheel of dharma) carved between two lions, alongside figures of the Jain Yaksha Dharanendra and Yakshini Padmavati.
While the Dharmachakra might lead some to mistake it for a Buddha statue, experts clarify it lacks the traditional Buddhist monastic robe (sanghati) and teaching gesture, perfectly matching the Jain iconographic text Jain Rupamandana.
Dr. Emani Siva Nagireddy, archaeologist and CEO of Pleach India Foundation, confirmed the extreme rarity of the discovery. Additionally, the team recovered another broken sculpture showing an elephant performing a ritual bath (abhisheka) over three Tirthankaras. Combined with an earlier discovery of a damaged sculpture of Kunthunatha, the 17th Tirthankara, in the same area, historians have concluded that Chand village was once home to an ancient Jain Basadi (temple complex).
Keywords: Parshvanatha sculpture, Kotha Telangana Charitra Brundham (KTCB), Chand village, Adilabad Jainism, 9th-century artifact, Sriramoju Haragopal, Jain iconography, Dharmachakra, Dr. Emani Siva Nagireddy, ancient Jain Basadi.
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