Jaina Art and Architecture Vol 01

SR No.: 011012
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A Ghosh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 345
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 106

MONUMENTS & SCULPTURE 300 B.C. TO A.D. 300
[РТ Ц following for the south when a dreadful famine had overtaken Magadha. The famine is said to have lasted for twelve years, at the end of which was convened the first Jaina Council at Påfaliputra to compile the canon.
Though Asoka, the grandson of Candragupta, took up the cause of Buddhism with great zcal, he did not neglect the Nirgranthas (Jainas) as may be gathered from his seventh Pillar-edict, wherein he says that his Dharma-mahămătras (officers of piety) were engaged equally among the Samgha (Buddhist church), Brāhmapas, Ajivikas and Nirgranthas. Among his successors Samprati is stated to have been a devout Jaina ruler, who rendered considerable service to the dissemination of the faith and constructed Jaina edifices."
Though it is certain that the religion was in a flourishing state during this period, one is confronted with an extreme rarity of Jaina monuments and antiquities not only of this period but also of the earlier one in Bihar. Even at Vaišali (modern Basarh, District Vaishali), not a single Jaina monument of the early period has been identified so far, though the place was closely associated with Mahavira and was reported to have a stūpa dedicated to Munisuvrata.
The earliest Jaina monument identified so far at Rājagtha (modern Rajgir, District Nalandā) is a set of two rock-cut caves, the western one of which is known as Sonbhandar. On the basis of the palacography of an inscription on the facade of this cave, which records the dedication of images of Arhats, the caves have generally been ascribed to the third or fourth century A.D.: However, as suggested by Saraswati, the caves appear to be earlier than this
1 Ibid. p. 89; U.P. Shah, Studies in Jalna Art, Banaras, 1955, p. 6. * Shah, op. cit., pp. 9 and 62.
M.H. Kuraishi and A. Ghosh, Rajgir, New Delhi, 1958, p. 25.
• S.K. Saraswati in Majumdar and Pusalker, op. cit., p. 503. [Soe below chapter 11 and plate 51A. It is difficult to separate chronologically the excavation of the caves from the carvings the early Gupta Jina bas-reliefs in the eastern cave and inscription of the same period on the outer wall of the western cave recording that Acaryaratda Muni Vairadeva bad the two caves, in which was the installation of the images of Arbats, made (excavated) for the attainment of nirvana. It is conceivable that in this region where rock-cut monuments are rare any evolution of rock-architecture would be slow, if not virtually non-existent. This may explain the resemblance between the Soubhandar caves on the one hand and the Mauryan ones at Barabar and Nagarjuni on the other, on which ground Saraswati assigns an early date to the former. To sult the theory of an carly date of the caves, it has even been suggested that the inscription belongs to the first-second century A.D. (Hiralal Jain, Bharatiya Sanskrti men Jaina-Dharma kd Yoga-ddna, Bhopal, 1962, pp. 308-09), but that is palacographically not possible.-Editor.]