Jaina Stupa At Mathura Art And Icons

Author(s): Renuka J Porwal
Publisher: Prachya Vidyapith

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The Jaina Stupa at Mathura: Art & Icons
helped in their healthy growth. It was natural that the Jain art very naturally expressed itself with a strong assertion, for the first time, and in plenty. The second reason why the Mathura school prospered was the different environment that also promoted the healthy growth of diverse religious traditions, and the new trends in the three religious traditions of India. These are Pashupata, Panchratra-Satvata in the Hindu agamic, the Sarvastivadi in Buddhist, and Digambara - Shvetambara in the Jaina tradition. It is at Mathura, that for the first time we see the mukhalingas, kayalingas and shrines of acharyas that show affinities to the Lakula-Pashupata sect, the ayagapatas and images of the Jain Tirthkaras, as also the image of the Buddha in Mathura and Gandhara styles. Mathura with its many sacred woods (proverbially twelve) and ghats was not only the sacred setting for the exploits of Krishna-Gopala, but of Buddhist and Jaina acharyas, like Upagupta and Jinabhadra-kshamashramana. The Jaina tradition has a long chain of names of legendary saints right from Jambusami who visited the city. Arya Skandila was very much connected with the 3rd Council at Mathura, and the 'Mathuri vachana'. The list continues to the times of Hiravijaya-suri, a contemporary of emperor Akbar. If Mathura was the fountainhead of new sculptural trends and iconographic innovations in buddhist and agamic iconography, for the Jain community the most important of the sanctuaries was a Jaina monument known as the
deve-nirmita-stupa', the vibrant memories of which echoed from time to in literature and inscriptions. It is interesting to note that poet Somdevasuri, in his 10th Century work Yashastilakachampu, narrates the legend of the dispute between the Buddhists and the Jains regarding the divine stupa' at Mathura. There is reference in a 10th century inscription to the legendary monument. The account left by Jinaprabhasuri, in his Vividha-Tirtha-Kalpa, shows very clearly that tradition kept alive details like Jinabhadra-kshamashramana (circa 500-600 C.E.) reconstructing the moth eaten text of the Nishitha-sutra with the help of a Ms. preserved in the manuscriptorium of the famous stupa. This tradition of the divine stupa' must have attracted the devout Jains for more than a millennium and inspired them to contribute in terms of structures and images built continuously till at least the 11th century, as the materi evidence here shows. The story ends when this great Jain heritage was razed to the ground by raiders of Gazna, and was slowly consigned to the womb of the earth. This came to be known as the Kankali tila The author, Dr. Porwal, takes a survey of the images of the Jinas, of the growing Jaina pantheon (comprising the yaksha-yakshis, and the other paraphernalia like Shutadevi, Lakshmi, and Balarama and Krishna), and other