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MONUMENTS & SCULPTURE A.D. 300 TO 600
[PART III
Skandagupta (A.D. 460-61) provides evidence to show that the Jaina faith did exist at other places, as the Gupta rulers were tolerant.
Whatsoever might have been the reason, it is a fact that Jainas apparently lost popularity in Mathura in Gupta times. Nevertheless, they did have their establishment at Mathura, and the faith did enjoy some sort of support from the laity. Jaina images, both of colossal and normal sizes, were being made and enshrined, but the heyday was gone.
The available Mathura material comprises the following sculptures:
(i) twenty-five seated Tirthankara figures in meditation (dhyānastha) (four illustrated, plates 43-46);
(ii) six Tirthankara figures in standing pose (khadgäsana) (two illustrated, plate 47);
(iii) twenty-three detached heads of Tirthankara figures (three illustrated, plates 48-50);
(iv) some fragmentary pieces.
Ayaga-patas and independent figures of Jaina deities like Sarasvati, Balabhadra, Dharapendra or any of the Sasana-devas or Sasana-devis are conspicuously absent. Even sarvatobhadra figures are very rare; the one in the Mathura Museum (AMM, B. 75) is of the late transitional period, i.e. of circa seventh-eighth century.
Let us now proceed to examine the available material in greater detail.
SEATED TIRTHANKARA FIGURES IN MEDITATION
Among the seated Tirthankara figures in meditation two are decidedly of Adinatha (AMM, B. 6 and B. 7, plate 46). One was of Neminatha (SML, J. 89), but it is now completely mutilated, only the attendant Balabhadra appearing on the slab.
1 SML, J.36, J.52, J.89, J.104, J.118*, J.119, J.122, J.139, J.584 (7), 0.181"; AMM, B.1, B.6, B.7", B.11, B.28, B.31, B.33, B.74, B.75, 15.959, 15.983, 18.1388, 54.3769, 57.4338, 57.4382. (*Illustrated.)
SML, J.83, J.86, J.100, J.121*; AMM, B.33, 12.268*. (* Illustrated.)
SML, J.59 (head only), J.164*, 1.168, J.175, J.176, J.200; 1.207, 1.222: AMM, A.35, B.44*, B.45. B.46, B 48, B.49, B.50, B.53, B.59, B.60, B.61, 11.134, 15.565, 15.566, 29,1941, 33.2348*, 67.189. (* Illustrated.)
SML, J.2; AMM, 14.488, 15.624.
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