Around 1,000-year-old stone statue of Bhagwan Kunthunath found in Maharashtra’s Hingoli

Mumbai, Feb 3: Around 1,000-year-old stone statue of Bhagwan Kunthunath , the 17th Jain Tirthankara, has been found in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district. The statue was discovered during construction work at a Jain temple.

 

 

 

 

According to the news shared by experts on Thursday (Feb 2) the statue was discovered during construction work on the premises of an existing Jain temple located at Sonune Galli of Aundha Nagnath, nearly 600 km from Mumbai and almost 450 km from Pune. The statue was discovered on Tuesday (Feb 1), the experts said.

 

 

 

 

 

The sculpture ahs been carved out of basalt rock, the abundantly and naturally available rock in Maharashtra and could be dated between 12th-13th century CE. Experts termed the statue to be composed of 'refined' composition. According to reports, Indologist Saili Palande-Datar said, “The recently excavated sculpture near the Jain temple at Aundha Nagnath can be identified as that of Kunthunath Bhagwan.” Mayuresh Khadke, an archaeologist with the state archaeology department, said, “This idol can be from the Chalukya era. It is of Lord Kunthunath as it can be identified by a ‘lakshana of goat over’ the idol.”

 

 

According to Jain Philosophy, Kunthunath was the seventeenth Tirthankara. He was born to King Surya and Queen Shridevi at Hastinapur, in the Ikshvaku dynasty on the fourteenth day of Vaishakh Krishna month of the Hindu calendar.