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History of Jainism with Special Reference to Mathurā Jainism in Mathurā – Post-Kuşāņa period
The Kusāna period was an age of great economic prosperity for Mathurā. Many important trade routes passed through this city.409 In the Jaina literature Mathurā is mentioned as a thalpattan where goods were carried by land route.410 This city was a great emporium, and its people lived by trade and not agriculture. 411 The majority of the Jainas in Mathurā belonged to the trading classes. It was the flourishing trade at Mathurā which accounted for the affluence of the Jaina community in this city. Economic prosperity enabled the Jainas to build and maintain magnificent religious edifices in Mathurā.
The disintegration of the Kuşāņa empire disrupted the political and economic patterns which had handsomely contributed to Mathurā's economic prosperity, and this city gradually sank to the level of a regional town.412 The decline in the fortunes of Mathurā must have affected the Jaina trading classes also. Therefore, there was a sharp decline in the building activities of the Jainas at Mathurā. After the downfall of the Kusāna dynasty no new Jaina religious building appears to have been constructed at Mathurā up to the eleventh century AD. Excavations at Mathurā have unearthed 84 Jaina inscriptions assignable to the Kuşāņa period. 413 These inscriptions are a record of the Jaina donations in Mathurā made in the form of images, temples, āyāgapaţtas, etc.
The post-Kusāna period was characterised by a revolutionary decline i the number of Jaina donations in Mathurā. It is evident from the fact that only 6 Jaina inscriptions of the post-Kuşāņa period have come to light at Mathurā.414 These facts are indicative of decline in the popularity of Jainism in the postKusāna period at Mathurā. But it would be wrong to presume that Jainism lost
409. MCH, pp. 46-54; Moti Chandra, Sārthaväha, 1953, pp. 4ff 410. LDJC, p. 309. 411. Ibid. 412. MCH, p. 54. 413. EI, X, pp. 2 ff; JPV, p. 18; Scythian Period, op. cit., p. 149 fn 16. 414. JS, Introduction, pp. 1 ff; EI, II, nos. XXXVIII-XL, XLI.
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