History Of Jainism With Special Reference To Mathura

SR No.: 022807
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: U K Sharma
Publisher: D K Printworld P L
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 304
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 175

Jainism in Mathură
of this city in the Kuṣāṇa period.272
The Jaina lay-worshippers donated numerous āyāga-paṭṭas273 which, too, were objects of worship.274 Architectural and sculptural antiquities brought to light by excavations at Mathura reveal that the Jainas worshipped the images of the arhats in the kayotsarga and the dhyanastha-mudra; they also worshipped the stupa, the dharmacakra, the ayaga-paṭṭa, 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 Yakṣa-worship, nagaworship and tree-worship also formed part of the religious life of the Jainas.276
THE JAINA MONASTIC ORGANISATION AT MATHURĀ
The Jaina Church at Mathura 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 catuvarna 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 Mathura 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.
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