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152
History of Jainism with Special Reference to Mathurā
(arhatāyatana) at Mathurā262 appears to have been a famous or important shrine.
The Jaina stūpa at Kankālī ļīlā was built many centuries before Christ. The natural inference is that stūpa-worship was in vogue in this city even before the establishment of the Kuşāņa rule in the first century AD. The dedication of an image of arhat Nandyāvarta (Aranātha) at the so-called vodva stūpa at Mathurā by a female lay-worshipper named Dinā (Dattā)263 provides evidence of stūpa-worship among the Jainas in the Kuşāņa period also. Imageworship was in vogue among the Jainas at Mathurā even before the commencement of the Christian era. The existence of a Jaina temple in this city in the second century BC provides unmistakable evidence of this practice. Worship of the jinas was an established practice among the Jainas at Mathurā in the first and the second century AD. Donation of the images of arhats Rşabha,264 Šāntinātha,265 Aristanemi,266 Pārsvanātha,267 Mahāvīra,268 etc., by the Jaina lay-devotees during this period bears testimony to this fact. Male and female deities of the Jaina pantheon like Naigmeşa and Sarasvati were also worshipped during this period. A Jaina worker in metal at Mathurā donated an image of Sarasvatī,269 the goddess of learning in Hinduism and Jainism. This image of Sarasvatī, which forms part of the collection of State Museum, Lucknow,270 is the oldest image of this goddess discovered in India.271 This discovery proves that worship of Sarasvati was also in vogue among the Jainas
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262. EI, X, Appendix, no. 47. 263. Ibid. 264. Ibid., nos. 56, 117, 121, etc. 265. Ibid., no. 27. 266. Ibid., no. 26. 267. Ibid., no. 110. 268. Ibid., nos. 18, 28, 31, etc. 269. Ibid., no. 54. 270. SML no. J.24; JAA, I, Plate 20. 271. SIJA, p. 11; JAA, I, p. 67.
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