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COYPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
157, Māiūru :-This place in South Kanara district of Karnāțaka had a Pārsvanātha temple of the late mediaeval period ; see J.ŚLS, IV, Nos. 494-495.
158. Maski :- This well-known place, associated with the inscriptions of Asoka, in Raichur district of Karnataka, was considered a Jain centre, in the mediaeval period. There were two Jain temples, including one called
Jagadekamalla Jirālaya, apparently named after Jaya• simba II ; see Desai, op.cit., pp. 393f.
159, Mathurā :-This was undoubtedly one of the earliest and the greatest Jain tirtkas of Northern India. As already noted by us, in the earlier volume of the present work (see pp. 44ff.), Mathurā had emarged as a Jain tirtha even in the pre-Christian times. It was at first a great Śvetām bara tirtha and afterwards the Digambaras also slowly made their presence felt in this town. We have also seen that in all the important svetām bara texts of later times, Mathurā was recognised as a great tīrtha, and in the early mediaeval period, the celebrated saint Bappabbasti gave a new lease of life to this religion in this city. The Digambaras, belonging to the Pañcastūpanikāya sect, originally belonged to Mathurā (see supra, Vol. I, p. 106). The celebrated Jinaprabha in his Vividhaiirthakalpa (pp. 17ff.), has given a history of this tīrtha and has connected it with Supārsvanātha. The great Śvetāmbhadra scholar (circa €00 A.D.), Jinbhadra had rescued a copy of the Mahāniśitha manuscript from the white-ants in the temple-complex of Mathura. The Brh atkathakoša (early 10th century) also has alluded to the popularity of the Digambara religion in this city. The excavations in the Kankāli tilă area of this city have brought to light, hundreds of Jain antiquities of the Kushāna period.
160. Mattavūra :—This place, in Chikmagalur district of Karnāțaka, has yielded epigraphs, which prove that it was very closely associated with Jainism, from the 11th century. The earliest epigraph, from this place, bears the
