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History of Jainism with Special Reference to Mathurā end of Kankālī Tīlā at different times from 1888 to 1896.31 It was Fuhrer who discovered the largest number of Jaina antiquities from this mound. Fuhrer's principal excavations at Kankālī Tīlā were conducted in 1888-9, 1889-90 and 1890-1.32 He made some excavations at this site in 1896 also.33
Fuhrer's excavations brought to light remnants of a Jaina stūpa, and of two Jaina temples also." But it is important to note that numerous Jaina antiquities which included inscriptions, images of the tīrthamkaras and pillars of stūpa railings had already been excavated by A. Cunningham.35 Excavations at Kankālī Tīlā had stopped after Cunningham's work at this site in 1882-3. But this work was resumed in 1888, first under the direction of Burgess, and thereafter under Fuhrer, 36 for the fulfilment of a specific need. This need arose because European scholars were engaged in a serious debate about the authenticity of the Jaina traditions at that time.
Jainism attracted notice of European scholars about the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1858, Albrecht Weber argued that the Jainas were Buddhist schismatics.37 Christian Lassen also theorised in the 1860s that the Jainas were descendants of the Buddhists.38 But Colebrooke, Prinsep, Stevenson, E. Thomas and some other scholars held that Jainism is older than Buddhism.39 These conflicting viewpoints led to a debate among European scholars, Between 1879 and 1884, Hermann Jacobi, one of the participants in this debate, undertook the refutation of the thesis that Jainism arose out of Buddhism. On the strength of references in Pali literature, Jacobi successfully
31. JS, Introduction, p. 1; MI, p. 40. 32. Ibid., Introduction, p. 2; Ibid. 33. MI, p. 40. 34. EI, I, p. 380; ASIAR, 1906-7, p. 141; MI, p. 40; JS, Introduction, pp. 2-3. 35. ASIAR, III, pp. 13ff; JS, Introduction, pp. 1-2. 36. MI, p. 40; MCH, p. 107. 37. MCH, p. 104. 38. Ibid. 39. CHI, 1, p. 152.
