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History of Jainism with Special Reference to Mathurā
at Mathurā as early as the middle of the second century BC. This is evident from the inscription which records the dedication of a pāsāda-torana by a śrāvaka named Uttaradāsaka.533 Two Jaina temples were built at Mathurā sometime in the first century AD. One of them was the donative gift of a Jaina lady named Dhāmaghoṣā.534 The second Jaina temple constructed at Mathurā in the first century AD was the donative gift of a courtesan named Vāsu, whose donation consisted of a devakula (shrine) of the arhat, an āyāga-sabhā (hall), a cistern (prapā) and a silā-patta (stone slab) in the nirgrantha arhatāyatana (sanctuary of the arhats).535 One more Jaina temple, called the temple of arhats, was built in the year 299 of an unknown era at Mathurā. This is evident from the inscription (dated 299 of an unknown era) incised on the pedestal of a broken image which records the installation of an image of Mahāvīra in the temple (āyatana) of arhats, and erection of a devakula (shrine).536 Lohuizen is inclined to assign the aforesaid inscription to the preKuşāņa period.537 But R.C. Sharma fixes it in the transitional period which falls between the end of the Kusāna period and the beginning of the Gupta period.538 It appears certain that vihāras, i.e., monasteries for the residence of Jaina monks, were also built at Mathurā.539 This is evident from the word vihāra which occurs on a fragmentary āyāga-patta discovered at Mathurā.549
Architecture of the Jaina shrines and monasteries at Mathurā
We have already stated that a large number of architectural pieces belonging to the Jaina religious buildings constructed at Mathurā have come to light.
533. EI, X, Appendix, no. 93. 534. Ibid., no. 99. 535. Ibid., no. 102. 536. Ibid., no. 78. 537. The Scythian Period., op. cit., p. 58. 538. R.C. Sharma, Jaina Sculptures, op. cit., p. 149. 539. JAA, I, p. 62. 540. Ibid., p. 52.
