Sudarshan Sahoo’s carving in Shwetambar Jain style on display. All 24 tirthankars are seen engraved on the same sculpture with Lord Mahavir at the centre.Pictures by Sarat Patra

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 22: Renowned sculptor Sudarshan Sahoo has carved a unique statue in Shwetambar Jain style where all 24 tirthankars (preachers of the religion) are seen engraved on the same sculpture with Lord Mahavir at the centre.

The statue was made at Sahoo’s craft museum in Puri. It has been built with Tenali stone, a specialty stone found in Andhra Pradesh, and weighs six quintals and is about five feet in height.

“The exclusive feature of the statue is that all the 24 tirthankars of Jainism are depicted on the same stone. As the Shwetambar religious munis (saints) used to wear clothes while Digambar saints discarded them, the decorations had to be different for each. The last tirthankar, Mahavir Jain, is at the central seat along with the symbol of lion under his posture, referred to as Lanchhan in Jain scripture,” said Sahoo.

The design was created after consulting many Jain pandits and munis in Shwetambar style. “Each of the other tirthankars have a symbol each, but as the theme was centred around Mahavir, we could not use the symbol of other tirthankars,” said Sahoo.

Historians say a tirthankar is one who established the Jain organisation after conquering both the emotions of love and hatred. He showed a fine path to the world’s living beings to be free from ignorance, misery and moha (worldly happiness).

Odisha was also associated with Jainism, and in many places Jain remains are still found. Although Jainism made its presence felt here in the 7th Century BC, in was during the reign of Kharavela that it became the most popular religion.

“In the sculpture, Parasnath and Suparasnath are seen standing on both sides of Lord Mahavir in the centre, with serpent hoods as their backdrop. Behind Mahavir is Indra and his wife Indrani guarding the tirthankar. Other tirthankars have been depicted in the form of small figures on the back arch,” said Rabi Sahoo, another sculptor of Sudarshan Craft Village in Puri.

In 2010, Sahoo and his craftsmen created the largest monolithic statue of Digambar Jain weighing 215 tonnes in chlorite stone. It was sent to Pushpagiri in Madhya Pradesh and was placed on a 200-foot-high hill on the Indore-Bhopal highway.

Recently, Sahoo started working on another project — a carved panel depicting the life of Gautam Buddha. The sandstone panel, to be carved out of 30 stones and decorated with borders of granite, will weigh more than 70 tonne.