Jain Narrative Relief Panel

Recent research has identified some of the figures in this relief as monks of a specific sect of Jainism, an ascetic religion that developed contemporaneously with Buddhism. The monks can be identified by their nudity, symbolizing their renunciation of all materialistic pursuits, and by the strip of pleated cloth that they wear over their left forearm. In its original context, this fragment would have formed part of an elaborately carved gateway leading to a temple of other sacred space.