A Torso of Parsvanatha in the Bhagalpur Museum (Bihar)

Summary

In this illustrated article Ajoy Kumar Sinha studies a remarkable stone torso of Lord Pārśvanātha that is now preserved in the Bhagalpur Museum in Bihar. Pārśvanātha, the twenty‑third Tīrthaṅkara and a key figure in Jain tradition, is believed to have been born at Vārāṇasī around 817 B.C. and to have preached a doctrine of love and universal fraternity before attaining nirvāṇa at Mount Sammeta Śikhara in Hazaribagh district. The author recounts that the torso under discussion came to light in 1977 when he recovered it from the Katwali Police Station at Monghyr (modern Munger). It had been unearthed inside the old Monghyr Fort during the construction of a gun factory. Although badly damaged, the torso’s dimensions—110 × 36 cm, with a waist and chest measuring 80 cm and 94 cm respectively—attest to the colossal scale of the original image. The snake dhāraṇā rises behind the figure’s back and curls along the right side, confirming the identification as Pārśvanātha. The Tīrthaṅkara is shown naked in the classic kāyotsarga posture and is carved from black basalt in the austere style associated with the Digambara tradition. Sinha situates the find within the broader context of Jain antiquities in Bihar. Drawing on the Padma‑carita of Ācārya Raviṣeṇa, he notes that the Jain religion flourished in the Munger region during that period and that temples to the Tīrthaṅkaras once dotted the area. The discovery of the torso near the Monghyr Fort suggests that a large image of Pārśvanātha originally stood near the present‑day temple in Bara Bazar before the shrine was destroyed, probably in the thirteenth century. The broken statue was likely thrown into the fort’s moat and lay buried until its twentieth‑century recovery. Sinha recounts local traditions that the existing temple at Bara Bazar, dedicated to the Digambara Jains, may have been erected above the ruins of the earlier shrine, lending plausibility to his reconstruction. Through careful description and historical analysis, the author underscores the significance of the Bhagalpur torso as tangible evidence of the once‑vibrant Jain communities of eastern India and calls for the preservation of such neglected antiquities.