Jain Journal 1975 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 7

JANUARY, 1975
of image worship, and, on the other hand, the existence in Magadha of an earlier model for Jina and Buddha images of early Christian centuries. The Jina image is a cult-object.
Lohanipur is a continuation of the Mauryan sites at Kumarahar and Bulandibag near Patna. There, highly polished torsos were revealed, from the foundations of a square temple (8 ft. 10 in. x 8 ft. 10 in.), quantity of Mauryan bricks, a worn silver punch-marked coin and another but unpolished later torso of a Jina in the kāyotsarga pose.
Lives of the twenty-four Tirthankaras of this age (according to Jaina conception of time) are the subject matter of the Kalpa-sūtra. The Samavāyānga-sūtra, a Jaina canonical Arga-text gives list of Tirthankaras of the Bharata and Airavata-ksetras of the Jambudvipa.
The Airavata-ksetra list of the Samavāyānga is not clear. The Pravacana-sāroddhāra, v. 296-303, gives a slightly different list.
The Kalpa-Sutra tradition of twenty-four Jinas is certainly older than c. 330 A. D. when Agastyasimha Suri commented on it in his Dasa-cürni. The Caturvimšati-stava or the Logassa-sutta, attributed to Bhadrabahu, (160 years after Mahavira) pays homage to twenty-four Jinas. The Nāyādhamma-kahāo refers to the life of Mallinatha, the nineteenth Jina. The Sthānārga-sūtra refers to various Jinas and in sūtra 108 notes their complexions.
The Āvašyaka-niryukti (vv. 949-51) refers to a Jaina stūpa of Munisuvrata at a place called Visala. Even though the extant text of the Avaśyaka-nir yukti does not seem to be earlier than the second century, stūpa referred to must be placed in a period, about one or two centuries A. D., the earlier, at least in the beginning of the Christian era.
Belief in the twenty-four Tirthankaras is also known to the Bhagavatisütra (Sataka 16, uddešaka 5). This sütra further refers to Munisuvrata, in other contexts while the Sthānārga refers to Malli, Parsva and Aristanemi (in sutras 229, 381). It may therefore be concluded that belief in twentyfour Tirthankaras existed in the beginnings of the Christian era and probably dates from a century or two earlier.
Jina Worship (at Mathura) in Kushana Period
Evidence of Jaina sculptures from the Kankali Tila (Mathura) and adjoining sites, show the prevalence of the stūpa-worship in Jainism,