A bronze figure of a tirthankara, India, Tamil Nadu, 11th century

J. J. Klejman, New York, by 1970.

Collection of Martin and Faith Dorian Wright.

Acquired from the above, 9th January 1971.

The immutable nature of this figure’s mental and spiritual state is captured by the symmetry and stillness of its postures. This idealized human image connotes a transcendent reality. Complete freedom from passion and anger is the state of the ‘ford-crosser’ or tirthankara, also known as a 'jina' or ‘conqueror.’ To become a tirthankara one must embody all forms of proper ethical behavior without striving to become such. One must eliminate all negative karma and attain omniscience through pure-intentioned and egoless striving to realize the five essential Jain virtues: non-violence, truth, non-stealing, chastity, and non-attachment.

In the Jain religion, twenty-four of these beings are believed to have carried forward the eternal truths that constitute the Jain doctrine. Jains believe that these eternal truths have, similarly, been eternally codified. While the final two tirthankara, Parshvanatha (c. 8th–7th century BCE) and Mahavira (c. 6th–5th century BCE), are widely accepted as historical figures by nonbelievers, the human lives and spiritual liberation of their twenty-two predecessors are also accepted as such by Jains. 

In fact, Jains believe it was the first tirthankara who created civilization. Prior to his extinction from the cycle of rebirth or moksha, upon which this first tirthankara achieved the status of ‘Jina,’ he inaugurated another human being of this age to help alleviate suffering by proliferating Jain teachings. Each successive tirthankara has done the same. Stories of these liberated begins began to emerge in the Common Era and were ultimately compiled in the important Kalpa Sutra, which is thought to have been written around the 4th century. Images of tirthankara, however, began appearing in Mathura (in modern Uttar Pradesh) by the first century CE. 

The present early figure, however, is not from northern India. Like those early jina images, the present figure is depicted naked or 'sky-clad', in austerity meditation–kayotsarga or the posture of body-abandonment pointing to their sectarian association with the Digambara tradition of Jainism, which embraces a more extreme form of asceticism and became concentrated in the southern regions.

Jain teachers or acharyas migrated to the south during the Ashokan period in order to gain greater support, as Buddhism became the state religion of the Mauryan Empire at that time. Despite Ashoka's son, Samprati, reviving the Jain tradition in the north, the Kushans suppressed the tradition once again during their reign which spanned the first through fourth centuries. The Gupta Empire did the same and, thus, Jainism became popular in southern regions of India. 

In the south, particularly in Karnataka, Jains enjoyed the committed patronage of kings, royal families, and common people. The Chalukya rulers of sixth to eighth centuries, the Rashtrakuta rulers of the eighth through tenth centuries, and the Hoysala rulers of the eleventh through fourteenth centuries, all supported the construction of Jain temples and the creation of Jain images throughout their southern territories.

Bronze images of this size were likely created for personal shrines. Scholarship on extant bronzes suggest that Jains were the likely pioneers in creating metal icons in India. The lost-wax casting technique was, for instance, used to create a late-third-century figure of Jina Rishabhanatha found in Chausa village in Bihar (which currently resides in the Patna Museum with others from the hoard). While high-copper-content alloys were used in the southern regions, bright brass became popular in the northern regions from the ninth century onward, see The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1994, pp 24-25.

This figure is cast in the high-copper-content alloy which typically transforms into the dark, rich, green patina we see today. This material quality and several stylistic features are evidence that this originated in the southern state of Karnataka during the 10th or 11th century. Snail-curled hair, downward-sloping brows, wide eyes, pronounced noses, distended earlobes, and a series of crescent lines down the neck and shoulders are features that were common to Jina images prior to this period; see Jina Suparsvanatha, The Norton Simon Foundation, Foundation (accession no. 1975.17.06.S).

The almost rubbery and ultra-rounded quality of the limbs and extremely narrow waist of the present figure, however, matches later examples. A bronze figure of Jina Neminatha that Dr. Pal dates to the tenth or eleventh century, see The Peaceful Liberators: Jain Art from India, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1994, cat. no. 50, displays a similar form of modeling, which becomes slightly more dramatic in the centuries that follow. Such is the style of the twenty-four stone jina figures in the Digambara Bhandara Basati temple in Shravana Belagola in Karnataka, dated to the twelfth century. 

An example at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Jain Digambara Tirthanhara Standing in Kayotsarga Meditation Posture, India (Deccan, Karnataka), Western Chalukyan period, 12th century, Copper alloy; Height 22½ in., (accession no. 2015.500.4.13), matches this one in even more minute details such as the articulation of the stomach, genitals, and knees. It is likely that the Met example had a similar base to the present.

A small number of similar figures have appeared on the international market, including one acquired in 2013 from Forge and Lynch, the National Gallery of Australia titled Sambhava, the third Jina, accession no. 2013.3956. A bronze figure of a Jina from the Doris Wiener Collection dated to the 10th or 11th century sold at Christie's New York, 20th March 2012, lot 59. In 2004, a 13½ in., 34.3 cm high Chola-period figure with a very similar silhouette and base sold at Christie's New York, 23rd September 2004, lot 46. 

The companion bronze figure to the present lot was sold in these rooms, 21st March 2024, lot 821.