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Jainism in Mathură
Buhler, too, did not mention this unit in his writings on this subject.289 But we find frequent mention of the unit called the sambhoga in the Jaina inscriptions of the Kuṣaṇa period discovered at Mathura. The fragment of a Jaina inscription in mixed dialect discovered from Kankali Tīlā, Mathura reads:
Dedication by Mittra (Mitra), first wife of... daughter-in-law of the ironmonger ... daughter of the . . . at the request of the preacher (vāchaka)..., the pupil of... the preacher,..., who was the companion of the ganin..., who was the pupil of... out of the Kottiya gana, the Brahmdāsika kula, the Uchchairnagarī sākhā, the Śrīgṛha sambhoga.290
The statements about the Jaina religious teachers and their schools embodied in the Jaina inscriptions of Mathura are important for the study of the early history of Jainism.291 Buhler's study of these epigraphs revealed that out of the eight ganas mentioned in the Sthaviravali of the Kalpasūtra, three or possibly four ganas existed in Mathura in the Kuṣāṇa period.292 He also found that out of the numerous kulas and śākhās mentioned in the Kalpasūtra, twenty existed in Mathura in the Kuṣāṇa period.293 Buhler's view that the Jainas in Mathura belonged to the Svetambara sect during the Kuṣaṇa period was formed on the basis of this similarity.294 We have already stated that there is no hint of the split in the Jaina Church of Mathura in this city's inscriptions of the Kuṣaṇa period.
The eight ganas mentioned in the Kalpasūtra are -- (1) the Carana gaṇa, (2) The Godāsa gaṇa, (3) the Kodiya gana, (4) the Manava gana, (5) the Uddeha gana, (6) the Uḍuväḍiya gana (7) the Uttarabalissaha gana and (8) the Vesavādiya gana.295 Out of these eight gaṇas, three (1) The Varana gana,296
289. OISJ, pp. 42-3.
290.
EI, X, Appendix, no. 29.
291.
OISJ, p. 58.
292. Ibid., pp. 58-60.
293. Ibid.
294.
Ibid., p. 44.
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