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OCTOBER, 1981
After his departure, the goddess told the inhabitants and the king that bad times were approaching and that she would not live to protect the stūpa for ever in its uncovered condition. The priceless stūpa should therefore be covered under a superstructure of bricks. She also asked them to install in front a stone sculpture of Parsvanatha. This was done.” (Studies in Jaina Art, Banaras 1955, pp. 62-63) In this connection the eminent scholar has also recalled that the “Digambara texts like the Bịhatkathā-kośa of Harisena (932 A.D.) give a story of the origin of five stūpas at Mathura all built by gods during a controversy with the Buddhists." (Ibid., p. 63) U.P.Shah has pointed out that one devanirmita stūpa at Mathura has been again mentioned in the Yašastilaka-campū of Soma. It has been felt that, such a tradition will obviously explain the origin or perspective of the pañcastūpa-nikāya of the region of Mathura. Though views may be offered as to the legends of the stūpa built by a goddess that will define a dependable truth the subject will ever evoke the memory of a mysterious past, fascinating and half-forgotten. Such myths can at present induce speculations on the sources of civilisation in the ancient world which at times may now even venture to refer to unknown contacts beyond the boundary of our familiar history. To the faithful the devanirmita stūpa or stūpas of Mathura evidently appeared resplendent with purity. In this connection it may be remembered that the Greeks in antiquity knew the city as Madoura ton theon i.e. 'Mathura of the gods'.
As it will be observed, centuries after the epochs of Parsvanatha and Mahavira the memory of goddesses and other heavenly women continued to inspire the art of the Jainas and thereby brought about a flowering grace to sculptures and paintings that seemingly essayed to confine in seductive lines the unseen beauty of another world. Here, of course, it may be observed that in the general works of art in India concerning alike the Hindu, Buddhist and Jaina mythology the Sunga-Kushan sculptures of female divinities and celestial women with their bold masses can be irresistible yet remaining remote and too sensuously beautiful to be owned. Save for this general likeness that pervades at times through later epochs the Jaina works of art gradually tends to express beauty, movement and a spiritual calm in a distinctive manner. Herein one may discover an exposition of an inner urge of the faithful to reach the glory of eternity beyond all our attachment pitifully conditioned by time and space. Thus, the female divinities, the yakşis, the attending ladies and the ballerinas of the celestial world appear in connection with the adoration of the Tirthankaras or the Arhats who became the Kevalin for attaining the final knowledge or omniscience that liberated them from the cycle of rebirth and thereby from the bondage of time. The attitude of the
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