11th century statue found in Pushkar
The 17th Jain Thirthankar Kuntunath's
medium sized statue (in good condition) dating back to 11th century was found in Pushkar in Ajmer during excavations. The statue was found when a renovation work of the Varaha temple was going on in old Pushkar town.
The statue is one among more than 36 statues found in the last one year and discoveries confirm of a religious congregations held at the place in the medieval period. Eighteen more such statues including a Shiv-ling, rare statue of God Karthikeya, Vishnu and more Jain Thirthankara statues.
The statues have been kept in the government museum at Akbar Fort in Ajmer.Archaeologists and historians are studying different perspectives of new scripts of Chouhan dynasty of 11th century.
More than 20 statues were found, two months ago, during construction work on a personal land called Jat Vishramsthali, behind famous Brahma temple. The work contains scriptures in Ingal and pingal, local dialects spoken during 10th century.
Researchers from the Government museum are of the opinion that Jainism flourished well at the time of Hindu ruler, Prithviraj Chouyhan. Pushkar has the importance of multi-religious studies.