Jain Journal 1975 01

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

Page 8

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JAIN JOURNAL
from at least the second century B.C. The Jaina stūpa, which once existed on the site of Kankali Tila, is regarded as a stūpa of Suparsvanatha, the seventh Tirthankara, but it was very probably the stupa of Parsvanatha who flourished 250 years before Mahavira's nirvāna, in 527 B. C. according to Jaina traditions. The antiquities from the site, discovered so far, mainly dating from about second or first century B. C. and upto about the end of the Kushana period, suggest that the stūpa was enlarged, repaired and adorned with sculptures in the beginning of the Christian era.
These antiquities from Mathura attest to the existence, amongst the Jainas, of the worship of the stūpa, the caitya-tree, the dharmacakra, the āyāgapațas (tablets of homage), the eight auspicious symbols (aştamangala) like svastika, the wheel of law (dharma-cakra), the nandyāvarta (diagram), the powder-box (varddhamānaka), the śrivatsa-mark, pair of fishes (mīna-yugala), the full-blown lotus (padma) the mirror (darpaņa) and so on. Images of Tirthankaras represented both in the standing and the sitting attitude, show no trace of drapery which clearly establishes that even though the Digambara and Svetambara schism had come into being in the first or second century A. D., the final crisis, in the differentiation of Tirthankara icons, had not yet taken place. Hence the evidence of art from Mathura refers to Jaina worship prevalent in both the sects in the first three centuries of the Christian era) and not the Digambara or Svetambara sect alone.
From Mathura are found a special type of sculptures, called pratimā sarvatobhadrikā with inscriptions on pedestals, which show a Tirthankara image on each of its four sides, facing each different direction. These fourfold images, later on known as caumukhapratimā on account of their facing four directions, have remained popular in Jaina worship of both the sects. The sarvatobhadrikā (pratimā) images from Kankali Tila, Mathura, date from the Kushana period.
An image of Sarasvati, of this period, is also found from Mathura. Incidents from lives of Tirthankaras and reliefs depicting scenes from Jaina mythology seem to have been existing in Jaina art at Mathura, as is evident from a figure (assignable to c. second or early first century B. C.) depicting the dance of Nilanjana (wife of Rsbhanatha) or another figure illustrating Harinegamesin, (commander of Indra's infantry) associated with child-birth and transfer of embryo, etc.