Jain Stupa and Other Antiquities of Mathura

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

Page 41

( 12 ) CHAPTER 11.-THE ARHAT NANDYAVARTA.
PLATE VI.
BASE OF IMAGE OF THE ARIAT NÂNDYAVARTA, DATED IN THE YEAR 79.
The subject of this plate is the left hand portion of the base of a large standing figure of a Jina found in the Kankali mound in the season 1890-91. The other portion of the base has been lost.
The sacred symbol in the centre of the composition consists of a wheel resting on a trisül, which is supported by i lotus flower. The group of worshippers on the right of the picture is formed of three women standing upright, and a little girl, who is partly hidden behind the stiff Assyrian-looking lion which crouches at the end of the slab. The lost portion was no doubt terminated by an exactly similar lion, and the group of worshippers on that side must have consisted of four male worshippers, of whom it portion of the figure of one remains. Each of the three women holds up in her right hand long-stalked lotus Hower. The girl clasps her hands in an attitude of smlorntion. The dress of the women is peculiar and consists of a single long robe covering the whole body to the feet and contined at the waist. The inscription, though mutilated, is still intelligible, and is as follows :
1.1. Sri LXXIX IV ili 1. etasyon pareriyarn kotfiye gone baïriyah sikhayin
2. ko 4 yarriethandi ruhato Vanili altrlasa pratimah nirnarlayali B.... bhiryyye Sririkriye (dindya) shown pratimit Vodve thipe deranirmite pru.
- The year 79, the fourth month of the) rainy season, the twentieth day, on that (date, specified ax) above, Ayu-Vridhahasti (Ary-Vriddhahastin), a preacher in the Kottiya yaņa (and) in the Vaira silkhi, gave the advice to make an image of the Arhat Nandi ávarta (Vandyi varta): .... the image, the gift of the female lay-disciple Dina (Datti), wife of ....Wan set up at the Volva Stapa, built by the gods."
The sculpture belongs to the Kushan period, and the mode in which the date is expressed shows that the year 79 must be referred to the era used by the great Kushân kings. This year 79 falls within the reign of Vasudeva, one of whose inscriptions is expressly dated in the year
80.5
The character, language, and yrammar of the Kushận inscriptions are discussed by Bithler in "Epigraphin Indica," Volume 1, page 371 segg.
The text of the inscription is of special interest as proving that stapels were built by Jains as well as Buddhists. The assumption has generally been made that all edifices in the Stúpu form are
The object held by the woman henrout the symbol seems to be an opening bud; the objects held by the two other women are uomintakenhle lotus flowers.
1 The umrlo 70, 94, and 3) #rench ex premnou in the ancient Indian manner by single character. I use the Roman numerala in the men rent available suivalent. The rak notation lloc in Persian and Urdu account is similar in principle to the ancient Indian notation.
Führer trintee the Artant whome mark in the Naudydvarta wyniol," that is to say, Arundth, the 18th Tirthamkara (" Progress Report" for 1891, page 10). He there gives the late # 78, but 79 is the oorrect reading. The Náudyavartu is a complicated Cronn, Nomowhat remembling the araxtika. We should expect to find thin Nymbol on the base where the wheel is. Compare the wheel in Plate хсiп.
• Bühler. Ep. Ind., Vol. 11. page 204, No. XX.
. I cannot attempt to discuss in this work the vexed question of the Kushilu era (ante, p. 6). For the dated inscription of VAsudeva ww No. XXIV in Epigraphin Indie," Vol. 1, MR 392.
I purposely use the well-established English word Juiu in preference to the plautio Jaina, which is used by most of the recept writers ou ludinu uutiquities.