Jainism Early Faith of Ashoka

Author(s): Edward Thomas
Publisher: Trubner and Company London

Page 37

THE EARLY FAITH OF AŞOKA,
BY
E. THOMAS, F.R.S.
In most of the modern discussions on the ancient religions of India, the point at issue has been confined to the relative claims to priority of Buddhism and Brahmanism, a limitation which has led to a comparative ignoring of the existence of the exceptionally archaic creed of the Jainas.
This third competitor for the honours of precedence has lately been restored to a very prominent position, in its archæological status, by the discovery of numerous specimens of the sculptures and inscriptions of its votaries on the sacred site of Mathura, the Módoupa ý twv €6v of the Greeks, that admit of no controversy, either as to the normal date or the typical import of the exhumed remains.
This said Mathura on the Jumna constituted, from the earliest period, a “high place" of the Jainas, and its memory is preserved in the southern capital of the same name, the Módoupa, Bao lelov Ilavdiovos of Ptolemy, whence the sect, in after-times, disseminated their treasured knowledge, under the peaceful shelter of their Matams (colleges) in aid of
1 Ptolemy, Médopa, Arrian (quoting Megasthenes), Indica viü. Methora, Pliny, vi. 22.
% F. Buchanan, Mysore, iii. 81, “ Uttara Madura, on the Jumna."
3 The modern version of the name of the city on the Jumna is A TT Mathurd. Babu Rajendralála has pointed out that the old Sanskrit form was HEITT Madhurd (J.A.S. Bengal, 1874, p. 259), but both transcriptions seem to have missed the true derivative meaning of HT Matha (hodie eiro), “a monastery, a convent or college, a temple," etc., from the root ĦT “to dwell,”