The stately bronze that you see on this page depicts Mahaveera standing on an expertly yet unassumingly carved plinth. The style is a lot like the Mathura school of sculpture, but for the medium. The pancaloha medium is a variety of bronze mixed from five (‘panca’) different kinds of iron-based (‘loha’ means iron) alloys. The superb, high-precision finish comes from the madhuchista vidhana process of working with such a complex medium (also referred to as the lost-wax method in contemporary circles).A long, slithering, thick-bodied snake raises its multitudinous hoods above the Lord’s head. Its stance is one of fierce protection. When you look at a picture of the back of the standing sculpture, the artisan’s attention to detail comes to light: there is perfect symmetry and dynamism of musculature in the snake’s body as, like the kundalini, it traverses the length of Mahaveera’s body.
