Jaina Stupa At Mathura Art And Icons

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

Page 66

The Tradition of Stūpa in Jainism
bearing a stūpa, worshipped by Centaurs and harpies (fig. 19, 20), as well as the Ayāgapatta of wheel (fig. 108), with the depiction of a half lion and half man adoring the symbols of three jewels, stūpa and caitya tree also prove the antiquity of the same, long before the Kuşāņa period. Another arch of door lintel now housed at the Delhi Museum has a carving, of the stūpa building higher than other buildings in the scene of city procession. Cunningham noted the measurement of the Kankālī Tīlā - 400 ft. X 300 ft. The higher portion at the eastern end of the mound was 25 ft., being 60 ft. broad at the top, while the base was 150 sq. ft.73. Here the bricks and other material were repeatedly taken by natives, and yet it was so high. (Orders were given to raze the structure to the ground by Gazani, during his invasion.) The stūpa depicted on āyāgapațța (fig. 41) and Toraņa (fig. 19) have similar structure like Samavasaraņa. Dr. U. P. Shah has compared the stūpa with Samavasaraṇa and Ziggurat (fig. 42). The Ziggurat is a peculiar feature of Sumerian architecture which could be traced back to chalcolithic period74. They existed in Mesopotamia, at least up to 539 B.C., before getting ruined but were remembered by the people. Later on, Persian artists drew a painting (fig. 42) of the same. They would have been familiar to Indians, from the time of the Indus valley civilisation, as Indians had trade relations with Sumeria and Babylon. The structural conception could have appealed to the Indians. Dr. Shah discussed the stūpa architecture by considering the views of Dr. V. S. Agrawal:
Dr. Agrawal noted in his article on “Some Foreign words in Ancient Sanskrit Literature”75 that the Samavasaraṇa is based upon the architecture of a stūpa. The Gandhakuti is pavilion (open on four sides) on a dais in the centre of a Samavasarana so Jina can visible from all four sides. The multi-tier shrines illustrated by Coomarswamy in HIIA, fig. 69 and 69A, of the stūpa may be compared with Samavasarana and Pañca-meru. Dr. Shah remarked that the conception of stūpa has its basis in the Ziggurat or Jarukā. He also noted that Ziggurat is a stepped pyramid having three stages76.
73 Henrich Luders, Mathurā Inscriptions, edited in 1961, pp 39-40. 74 Woolley, Sir Leonard, Excavation at Ur, (London, 1934) pp. 125 75 I) J.U.P.H.S. vol. XXIII. 1950, pp. 151-152,
II) U. P. Shah, Studies in Jaina..1955, pp. 56 . 76 U. P. Shah, ibid, Appendix.