A STONE NICHE WITH TIRTHANKARA AND ATTENDANTS Northern India, Rajasthan (?), 10th-11th century The sculpture consisting of a niche flanked by two circular section columns with lantern capitals and surmounted by a leafy spire, inside the figure of the standing naked deity with her arms along the sides, on the lower sides two figures of attendants. 70 cm high Provenance: Italian private collection. The Tirthankara, literally "crossing makers", are twenty-four personages who have reached enlightenment through their ascetic life and thus interrupted the otherwise eternal cycle of death and rebirth. According to the Jain doctrine - founded by Mahavira (540-468 BC), the last of the Tirthankara - they are models to be pursued, emblems of the "three jewels", right knowledge, right faith and right conduct.