Collection

Head of a Jina, 11th century

Indian

Credit: Gift of Ben Heller, New York

Jainism,the most passionately nonviolent of all religions,has been continuously practiced in India for more than 2,500 years. Its name comes from the word jina, which means “liberator” or “victor.” The twenty-four jinas of the Jain pantheon provide spiritual role models for devout Jains, who aspire to achieve nirvana, or moksha—a state of liberation from the karmic cycle of rebirth—through a combination of meditation, devotional ritual, and religious austerities.The historical founder of Jainism is Mahavira, the most recent of the twenty-four jinas and a contemporary of the Buddha Shakyamuni.

This massive head, originally part of a colossal sculpture, represents one of the twenty-four jinas. It was produced during the medieval period, when followers of the Jain faith had grown into a large and f lourishing community, especially in Rajasthan and Gujarat, where they built numerous mountaintop shrines and temples.The petal- shaped eyes, curving brows, and full lips are typical of the medieval sculptural tradition of northern India, which adhered to proportions prescribed in iconographic texts.The snail-shell curls and elongated, pierced earlobes are conventions shared by images of the Buddha, but the absence of a cranial protuberance (ushnisha) and dot between the eyes (urna) confirms that this is an image of a jina.

Provenance

Provenance

(Ben Heller, Inc., New York);

acquired by Kimbell Art Foundation, Fort Worth, 1968, gift of Ben Heller.