Encyclopaedia of Jaina Studies Vol 01 Jaina Art and Architecture

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain, Others
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 36

CHAPTER III
JAINA STUPA ARCHITECTURE
The stupa is a sepulchral monument raised as a mark of respect to the deceased person. In India the disposal of the dead body of a deceased person is performed by cremation, immersion or burial. The stupabuilding is connected with the rite of cremation as there was a practice of raising a mound of earth called stupa over the bone relics collected at the site of cremation. Being piled up on the funeral pyre (cita) it is also known as caitya. This earthly mound formed the core for later encasing, first by baked bricks and then by stone with or without a ground railing having gateways in the four cardinal directions.
The literary account with regard to stupa architecture has been discussed at length in Chapter II of this Volume and hence it is useless to recount it again, but such portions as are necessary will certainly be alluded to for elucidation.
The stupa-building was an old practice adopted by all the three principal sects (Brahmanical, Buddhist and Jaina) of India, but later it remained associated mainly with the Buddhists. This is clearly reflected from the fact that all the known examples of stupa, barring the one reported from Kankali Ţilā, are Buddhist. The information about an old tradition for building a stūpa comes from the Buddhist text itself. Indeed, the Mahaparinibbanasutta says that the Tathāgata Buddha asked his chief disciple Anand to raise a stupa for Him in the same way as was being done for the remains of a Cakravartin King. This evidently shows that there was an ancient practice to build a stupa even prior to the time of the Buddha who died at the age of 80 years in c. B.C. 486. Fortunately, we have a literary reference in Jaina tradition to show the erection of a Jaina stupa at Mathura during the time of the 23 Tirthankara Pārsvanatha who is said to have flourished in the 8th century B.C. This Jaina stupa is presently identified
with that located at Kankali Ṭila, Mathura district (U.P.). This is the lone Jaina stupa known so far. The Jaina Stupa of Mathura
and
According to the Bṛhatkathakosa of Harisena, there were five Jaina stupas at Mathura. These stupas are known to have been repaired some time later. It is also known that there was a Jaina sect called Pañcastūpanvaya at Mathura and Jinasena, the author of the Jayadhavalā, claims to have belonged to this lineage. The Paharapura Copper Plate of A.D. 478 makes mention of Pañcastūpanikaya as well. But Jinaprabhasūri in his Vividhatirthakalpa Somadeva in his Yasastilakacampu refer to only one Devanirmita stupa at Mathura. This Jaina stupa, according to Jinaprabha, was originally built in honour of the 7th Tirthankara Supärsvanatha and was repaired during the time of the 23rd Tirthankara Parsvanatha. At the time of repair an image of Parsvanatha was also installed in front of the stupa since there arose a controversy with the Buddhists regarding the ownership of the stupa (see, U.P. Shah, Studies in Jaina Art, pp. 62-63).
The antiquity of the Jaina stupa of Mathura, according to the literary account, thus goes at least to the time of Parsvanatha, but the archaeological materials recovered from Kankali Tila and now preserved in Mathura, Lucknow and other museums hardly go beyond the 2nd century B.C. The reason behind this is that the stūpa had been renovated more than once and consequently the materials available belong to different strata of time. It appears that the original stupa at Kankali Ṭila was made of earth; later it was converted into a brick stupa; and in the third stage it was transformed into a stone stupa together with the addition of a large stone railing and four gateways in the four directions with a good deal of carvings. The archaeological excavations carried out at Kankali Ṭila have indeed revealed a large number