Jain Stupa and Other Antiquities of Mathura

Author(s): Vincent A Smith
Publisher: Vincent A Smith

Page 19

Plato.
( 2 ) Cunningham's Date.
Remarks. XIV No. 9
Samvat 39
... On elephant capital (mentions Huvishka). ib., 10
Do. 47 ib. . 15 ...
Do. 48
- mentions Huvishka. XV, 16 ...
On pedestal of life-sizo naked statue (mentions
Vasudeva). ib. , 18 ... ... Do. 87 ...
On life-size naked figure (mentions Vasudeva). ib. 19 .. Do. 90 ... ... (Cunningham's reading is mostly wrong
see Ep. Ind., II., 205). . . ib. 20 ... . Do. 98 ... ... On naked standing figure (mentions Vasudeva).
Miscellaneous antiquities from the Kankálî mound are figured by Cunningham in Volume III of the "Reports" as follows Plate.
Object. II ...
Amethyst. V ...
Elephant capital. VII ...
Railing-pillar, with nude dancing-girl and other scenes. VIII ...
Railing pillars and bars. XI, D ...
Mutilated male figure. XII, A ...
... Foliage ornament. In Volume XVII of the "Reports” (page 111), Cunningham notes that in the season of 1881-82 he dug up many Jain figures, including one inscribed with the name of Vardhamana, the last of the 24 Jain pontiffs or Tirthamkaras. During the operations of the same season the Hellenistic group of Herakles strangling the Nemean lion (ibid, Plate XXX) was found " amongst the heaps of fragments lying about." No more exact description of the find-spot is given. Several railing-pillars with statues of dancing-girls in the collection at the Mathura Museum are figured in Plate XXXI of the same volume, without any indication of the find-spot of each. Unfortunately the collection in the Museum at Mathura has never been catalogued or properly arranged, and no record was kept of the spot where each object was found.
Cunningham's last visit to Mathura in the season of 1882-83 is the subject of some desultory notes in Volume XX of the "Reports.” Plates III and IV in that volume illustrate a few curious sculptures in the local Museum. Plate IV, figure 1, represents a nude Jain saint preaching, with a,Naga on each side adoring him. This sculpture probably belonged to the Digambara temple of the Kankalt mound.
When Cunningham paid his early visits to Mathura in 1853, 1860, and 1863, as described in Volume I of the "Reports," pages 231-244, the Kankálf mound had not been noticed.
Dr. Fuhrer's principal explorations of the Kankali mound were effected in the three seasons 1888-89, 1889-90, and 1890-91. The Provincial Museum Report for the year ending 31st March 1889 enumerates as received by the Museum the following Mathurà antiquities, most of which seem to have come from the Kankali mound or its immediate neighbourhood :
"10 inscribed statues of several Svetambara Jinas of the Indo-Scythian period, four inscriptions of which are most important for the history of the Jainas;
84 pieces of sculpture forming parts of a magnificent Svetambara Jaina temple of the time of the Indo-Scythian king Huvishka;
a statue of Mahaviranatha surrounded by the remaining 23 Tirthathkaras; two colossal statues of the Jina Padmaprabhanatha, dated Samvat 1086 and 1184, respectively;'
1 Post, Plate XCIV. Port, Platon XOV, XOVI. Por 1086 road "1088."