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Jaina Art and Architecture at Mathurā
The earliest Jaina stūpa at Mathurā was the one called devanirmita by Jinaprabha Sūri, Somadeva, and in one of the Jaina inscriptions. The devanirmita stūpa, which probably enshrined the relics of Pārsvanātha and built in the eighth century BC, must have been a clay-stūpa. It must have been built of mud or mud-bricks, 592 because burnt bricks became a medium of construction only in the fifth century BC. This mud-stūpa was the forerunner of the earliest brick-stūpa built by the Jainas at Mathurā, and was called devanirmita, like the preceding clay-stūpa.
The Jaina brick-stūpas raised at Mathurā were indistinguishable from contemporary Buddhist stūpas.593 The components and representation of the stūpas found at Kankālī Tilā do not reveal any characteristic that is not found in contemporary Buddhist stūpas.594 But for their more slender shape, the stūpas at Mathurā possessed all features which were characteristic of the Buddhist stūpas built at Sanchi and Bharhut in central India.595 Structurally, the toranas of the Mathurā stūpas did not differ from those of Sanchi and Bharhut, the only difference being the decoration which was less elaborate in the former. 596 The stūpas at Mathurā had dimensional railings and gateways loaded with reliefs and figures of endless description; they, thus, assimilated a rich stock of ancient symbols characteristic of ornamented stūpas of Sanchi and Bharhut.597
The dome and drum of the Jaina stūpas built at Mathurā were austere and plain like stūpas 1, 2 and 3 at Sanchi.598 But as at Sanchi so at Mathurā, the urge for decoration found manifestation in the railings and gateways, which are adjuncts and not essential elements of the stūpa.599 It is, thus, clear
592. V.S. Agrawala, Mathurā Kala, 1964, p. 79. 593. IGI, II, p. 111. 594. JAA, I, Editorial, pp. 6-7. 595. J. Ph. Vogel, Buddhist Art in India, Ceylon and Java, 1936, p. 30. 596. ASIAR, 1906-7, p. 147. 597. V.S. Agrawala, Studies ..., op. cit., pp. 55-6. 598. JAA, I, p. 57. 599. Ibid.
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