Hansi hoard

Hansi hoard
Hansi hoard
	Hansi hoard inside Hansi Jain temple
Year	8th—9th century
Medium	Bronze

The Hansi hoard was discovered accidentally by children looking for a ball, when they discovered one of the images on January 19, 1982.

Jain Tirthankaras inside Asigarh Fort

dating back to the 8th—9th century, as determined by paleographical analysis, although none of the images are dated.

History

In 1982

Shwetambar sect. Some of the images still had coating of sandalwood paste, suggesting that they were in active worship before they were hastily buried in a copper container just before Masud’s invasion at Hansi in A.D. 1037.^[2] Among the hoard, there are a few implements of worship and included a Buddhist Avalokiteśvara image. These idols are currently placed in Punyoday Jain temple, Hansi.^[3]

Initially kept at the Digambar Jain Panchayati temple, they were kept at the

Chandigarh Museum

. The idols were then given back to the Jain community on December 30, 1991.

Other well-known hoards of Jain bronzes include Akota Bronzes of Gujarat; Chausa hoard and Aluara bronzes from Bihar.

Major images

The Jain bronzes includes

Buddha.^[4]

The image of

yakshi Ambika holding her son on left slap flanking with yaksha Gomedha as her consort sitting in lalitasana with 6 tirthankars in Kayotsarga posture engraved in the pedestal.^[4]

The other well-known idol is a large idol of Jain shrutidevi Sarasvati.[4]

Stolen and found

In 2005 the idols were mysteriously stolen on Oct 26, 2005.^[5] They were later found after a few days. Some of them were found in Mahabir Colony waterworks after 36 days.^[6] Six suspects, with prior criminal backgrounds,^[7] were arrested, they disclosed that they were unable to find buyers.