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@急卐
History of Jainism with Special Reference to Mathura
Probably, there were two more pillars at the remaining two corners of this stupa.
645
The railings of the Jaina stūpas of Mathura deserve special notice. These stūpas either perished of their own or 'were destroyed by ruthless agencies at some later date' 646 But the remaining pieces of the railing pillars show decorative skill of the highest class 'and a perfection of plastic art not attained at any time before or after' 647 The railing formed an enclosure round a monument built of stone, but on a pattern similar to that of a bamboorailing 648 The stone railing round the stupa appeared as a series of upright posts, each pair of them joined together by three cross-bars inserted in the mortices cut into the narrower sides of the pillars, and held in position on top by the copings and at bottom by the base-stones held by the similar morticeand-tenon devices.649
In the beginning the anda or the main hemispherical body of the stūpa was plain.650 This architectural plan left no scope for the sculptors to display their decorative skill. They, therefore, unfolded their craft in the decoration of the torana (gateway) and railing (vedikā) of the stūpa. The sculptors embellished the torana and the railing of the stupa with figure-sculptures of rare beauty. The railing which once sorrounded the stupa of Bharhut and the stūpa No. 2 at Sanchi bear testimony to it.651
The real charm of the rail posts of the Mathurā stūpas lies in depiction of female figures. These figures have been conceived and represented in
645. JAA, I, p. 56 and Plate 1.
646.
P.K. Agrawala, op. cit., p. 4.
647. Ibid.
648.
649. Ibid.; ibid.
650.
Ibid., p. 2; V.S. Agrawala, Masterpieces..., op. cit., pp. 7-8.
The anda of the Sañcī stupa is a classical example. See JAA, I, p. 57; P.K. Agrawala, op. cit., p. 2.
651. P.K. Agrawala, op. cit., p. 3.
