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Post-Mahāvīra Period and the Contribution of Jainism
Jainism in Uttar Pradesh
One of the migrations of the Jaina community brought it to Mathurā at an early period.68 Jainism obtained a firm footing in Mathurā by the second century BC,69 and in the early centuries of the Christian era this city became the most renowned centre of Jainism in north India. We shall turn to the history of Jainism in Mathurā in the following chapters of this book.
Jainism in Bundelkhand
Khajuraho, a village in the Chatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh," was the capital of the Candella dynasty of Bundelkhand from the ninth century AD to the thirteenth century AD.72 Eighty-five temples were constructed at Khajuraho73 between AD 950 and AD 1050.74 Nearly one-third of the extant temples at Khajuraho,75 which number twenty76 or between twenty and thirty ?or more than thirty,78 are Jaina temples.79 According to V.A. Smith, Khajuraho temples were erected by the order of the Candella rulers.80 But Percy Brown is of opinion that the Candella rulers merely extended patronage
68. AOIU, p. 418; CMHI, II, p.363. 69. JAA, I, p. 51; CHI, I, p. 167. 70. CMHI, II, p. 355. 71. Vidya Prakash, Khajuraho - A Study in the Cultural Conditions of Chandella Society,
1967, p.1.
ASIAR (1922-3), p. 83. 73. Mārg, vol. X, p. 19; Louis Fredric, Indian Temples and Sculptures, 1959, p. 294. 74. A.K. Coomaraswamy, History of Indian and Indonesian Art, 1927, p. 109; Marg, vol. X,
p. 1; N.S. Bose, History of the Candellas of Jejakbhukti, 1956, p. 162. 75. Vidya Prakash, op. cit., p. 10; N.S. Bose, op. cit., p. 163; HIEA, p. 452. 76. Marg, X, p.19; Max-Pol Fouchet, The Erotic Sculpture of India, p. 68; The Art of the
Chandelas, ed. A. Goswami, 1957, Foreword. 77. HOFA, p. 28. 78. Vidya Prakash, op. cit., p. 8; HIEA, p. 452. 79. Ibid., p. 10; Ibid., p. 452; N.S. Bose, op. cit., p. 163. 80. N.S. op. cit., p. 163.
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