Jain Journal 1986 10

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

Page 25

OCTOBER, 1986
referred to funeral mounds or stūpas of Udena, Sattambaka and others.35 The Bahuputtika cetiyam in the Mahāpariņivvāna sutta may be said to be identical with the caitya of the same name at Visala (Vaisali) and Mithila referred to in the Jaina Bhagavati and Vipāka Sūtras. This Bahuputtika or Bahuputrika caitya was dedicated to a goddess of a name who was a prototype of the later Buddhist Hariti. “Some of these Buddhist cetiyas were, therefore, similar to the Purnabhadra cait ya described in the Aupapātika Sūtra36 called yakşāyatana after the well-known ancient Yaksas Purnabhadra and Manibhadra by Jaina commentators. The description of this Purnabhadra caitya, as given in the Aupapätika Sūtra37 supports more or less the interpretations advanced by Hoernle stated above. It is said that this caityd was in the Udayana park, called Amrasalavana, situated to the north-east of the city of Campa. It was very old in age, recognised by people of ancient times, famous, praised everywhere, and jñāta.38
At Vaisali recently an image of Mahavira in black Basalt stone of the Pala period was discovered, which is now kept in a modern tem situated to the west of Vaisaligarh near a tank. This image is now respectfully worshipped in the name of Jainendra by the Jainas who flock there from all over the country.39 We have reference to another Jaina image discovered in Vaisali in excavation.40 Moreover, innumerable clay sealings and self-impressions of more than 120 varieties, mostly of unbaked clay were found by Dr. Block, Spooner and others in course of excavations at the site. Jainism undoubtedly had a very great influence in the area during the period to which these relics belong. But no definite evidence of Jaina antiquities can be ascertained on the basis of these huge finds.
Besides Vaisali, Jayamangalgarh (north Monghyr and a part of ancient Mithila) is popularly believed to Jain as, 41 though we have no definite corroborative evidences, literary or archaeological, to support or reject this traditional view. The Mauryan ruler, Samprati, is also held by tradition as a great patron of the Jainas
85 U. P. Shah, op. cit., pp. 55 ff. 36 Ibid., 55. 37 Sutras 2-5. 88 U. P. Shah, op. cit., p. 55; for details see U. Thakur, Studies in Jainism and Buddhism
in Mithila, p. 103. 89 See U. Thakur, Ibid. 40 P. C. Roychoudhary, Jainism in Bihar, 99. « For the antiquities, history etc. of Jayamangalagarh, see G.D. College Bulletin Series,
Nos. 1-4.