History of Jainism

SR No.: 006741
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: U K Sharma
Publisher: D K Print World
Publication Year: 2002
Total Pages: 304
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 175

Jainism in Mathurā
of this city in the Kuşāņa period. 272
The Jaina lay-worshippers donated numerous āyāga-pattas273 which, too, were objects of worship.274 Architectural and sculptural antiquities brought to light by excavations at Mathurā reveal that the Jainas worshipped the images ofthearhats in the kāyotsarga and the dhyānastha-mudrā; they also worshipped the stūpa, the dharmacakra, the āyāga-patta, the dhvaja-pillar, auspicious symbols like the svastika, the śrīvatsa mark, the full-blown lotus, a pair of fish, minor male and female deities, etc., in this city.275 Yaksa-worship, nāgaworship and tree-worship also formed part of the religious life of the Jainas.276
THE JAINA MONASTIC ORGANISATION AT MATHURĀ The Jaina Church at Mathurā was a splendidly organised institution. The inscriptions reveal that support for Jainism in this city came mainly from the trading classes of society like workers in metal, ironmongers, perfumers, goldsmiths, cotton dealers, bankers, etc. The Jaina Church in this city enjoyed the support of a strong, affluent and well-organised body of lay-followers. The catuvarṇa samgha or the community of the four orders, 277 consisting of the monks, the nuns, and the lay-followers, male and female, was in excellent shape. Donations in the form of an image were sometimes addressed to, or made to the community of the four orders.278 The Jaina monks and nuns were fired with unbounded missionary zeal. The inscriptions discovered at Mathurā reveal that the majority of donations by the Jaina male and female layfollowers were made at the request or command of the monks and the nuns.279 The Jaina order of monks was well-organised, and was strongly supported also.
272. SIJA, p. 11. 273. EI, X, Appendix, no. 94. 274. SIJA, p. 11; JAA, I, pp. 63-5. 275. EI, X, Appendix pp. 2ff; SIJA, pp. 10-11. 276. V.S. Agrawala, Ancient Indian Folk Cults, 1970, pp. 104, 116, 180. 277. EI, X, Appendix, no. 57. 278. Ibid. 279. Ibid., pp. 2ff.
153