Four Pañca‑Tīrthikas from Bhagalpur

Summary

In this illustrated note, art historian **Ajay Sinha** examines four bronze **Pañca‑Tīrthika** icons preserved at Bhagalpur’s Śvetāmbara Jaina temple. The site itself stands on the ruins of ancient Campāpurī, capital of Anga, and houses a seventeenth‑century temple built by the merchant Jagat Seth. Sinha describes the icons’ formal features: each miniature shrine contains five seated Tīrthaṅkaras arranged in a lotus pedestal, flanked by two attendant Yakṣa‑Yakṣī figures and crowned by a canopy. The finials are finely cast and topped with a pair of fishes, while the base includes bands of moulding and lotus motifs. The article reproduces four photographs showing the front and side views of the bronzes (figs. 1‑4), illustrating their stylistic consistency. By comparing inscriptions and stylistic traits, Sinha dates the icons to between 1466 and 1653 CE and identifies the principal images as Sambhavanātha, Abhinandana, Anantanātha and Neminātha. One icon bears the date saṃvat 1523 and names the image as Bhagavān Sambhavanātha; another is dated 1520; a third, attributed to Bhāvanāth Tīrtha, is dated 1588; and a fourth commemorates the Tīrthaṅkara Pārśvanātha (dated 1653). Although discovered in eastern India, the bronzes resemble Western Indian Pañca‑Tīrthika types in their arrangement and ornamentation. Sinha argues that these finds demonstrate the spread of clustered Tīrthaṅkara worship beyond its heartland and add valuable data to the corpus of medieval Jain metalwork.