________________
Jainism in Mathurā
Most of the Jaina antiquities excavated from this mound belong to the Kuşāņa period. There is no unanimity among historians regarding the chronology of the Kuşāņa dynasty. According to one view the Kuşāņa kings ruled at Mathurā from the middle of the first century AD to AD 176.88 On the basis of finds from Kankālī ļīlā, the Kuşāņa period may justly be described as the golden age of the history of Jainism in Mathurā.
Jainism attained its peak at Mathurā during the Kusāna period. But its history in this city began much earlier. The exact date of the settlement of the Jainas at Mathurā is difficult to ascertain. The earliest dedicatory Jaina inscription discovered at Mathurā belongs to the middle of the second century BC. But it is certain that the Jaina community had settled at Mathurā much earlier than the second century BC. The earliest Jaina antiquities excavated from Kankāli Tilā or any other site in Mathurā, are the remnants of a stūpa which appears to have existed in this city for many centuries. We, therefore, begin the history of Jainism in Mathurā with the history of the Jaina stupa which was built at Kankāli Tilā.
The Jaina stūpa at Kankālī Tīlā, Mathurā
The stupa was an early form of the structural architecture of the Jainas. Jaina traditions refer to the practice of erecting stūpas over the ashes of the jinas.90 The excavations at Kankālī Tīlā have provided unmistakable evidence that at least one Jaina stūpa, if not more, was built at this site in Mathurā. It was Fuhrer who excavated the remnants of a Jaina stūpa from Kankāli Țilā in 1889-90.9 The General Plan of the excavated part of Kankālī Tīlā published by V.A. Smith clearly shows the position of the Jaina stūpa, 92 as also its
87. See EI, X, Appendix, Lüders List, pp. 2 ff. 88. R.C. Sharma, The Splendour of Mathură Art and Museum, 1994, p. 27. 89. EI, II, p. 195 and Inscription no. 1, pp. 198-9; EI, X, Appendix, Lüders List, no. 93, p.
17. 90. SIJA, p. 9. 91. JS, Introduction, p. 3. 92. JS, p. 8 and Plate I.
133
