STÈLE DE RISHABHANATHA EN GRÈS ROUGEINDE CENTRALE, VIIIE SIECLE59.4 cm (23 3/8 in.) highProvenance: A RED SANDSTONE STELE OF RISHABHANATHACENTRAL INDIA, 8TH CENTURY印度中部 八世紀 紅砂岩勒舍婆那陀石碑Exhibited:Steps to Liberation: 2,500 years of Jain Art and Religion, Etnografisch Museum, Antwerpen, 26 May - 15 October, 2000.Published:Jan van Alphen,Steps to Liberation: 2,500 Years of Jain Art and Religion, 2000, p. 136, no. 61.Provenance:With Claude de Marteau, Brussels, by 1970sThis sculpture depicts the first Jain saviour (Tirthankara), Rishabhanatha, also known as Adinatha, 'Lord of the Beginning'. Rishabhanatha is identified by the long tresses resting on his broad shoulders and the bull adorning the cloth suspended below the throne cushion. Devotees place his origins to millions of years ago, when in addition to enacting the standard career of a Tirthankara, he introduced a variety of practical and social skills to human beings (Granoff (ed.),Victorious Ones, 2009, p. 21).The lions beneath the throne gaze towards the viewer, stretched out like cats waiting to be stroked. The donors of this sculpture are depicted wor,500 Years of Jain Art and Religion, 2000, p. 136.)