________________
stūpa referred to must be placed in a period, about one or two centuries A. D., the earlier, at least in the beginning of the Christian era.
Belief in the twenty-four Tirthankaras is also known to the Bhagavati-sūtra (śataka 16, uddeśaka 5). This sutra further refers to Munisuvrata, in other contexts while the Sthänänga refers to Malli, Parsva and Arişțanemi (in sutras 229, 381). It may therefore be concluded that belief in twenty-four Tirthankaras existed in the beginning of the Christian era and probably dates from a century or two earlier.
Jina Worship (at Mathura) in Kuşana Period
Evidence of Jaina sculptures from the Kankali Tila (Mathura) and adjoining sites, show the prevalence of the stupa-worship in Jainism, from at least the second century B.C. The Jaina stupa, which once existed on the site of Kankali Tila, is regarded as a stupa of Suparśvanatha, the seventh Tirthankara, but it was very probably the stupa of Pārsvanatha who flourished 250 years before Mahavira's nirvāṇa, in 527 B.C. according to Jaina traditions. The antiquities from the site, discovered so far, mainly dating from about second or first century B.C. and upto about the end of the Kuşana period, suggest that the stupa was enlarged, repaired and adorned with sculptures in the beginning of the Christian era.
These antiquities from Mathura attest to the existence, amongst the Jainas, of the worship of the stupa, the caitya-tree, the dharmacakra, the āyāgapaṭas (tablets of homage), the eight auspicious symbols (aşṭamangala) like svastika, the wheel of law (dharma-cakra), the nandyavarta (diagram), the powder-box (varddhamānaka), the śrivatsamark, pair of fishes (mina-yugala), the full-blown lotus (padma) the mirror (darpana) and so on Images of Tirthankaras represented both in the standing and the sitting attitude, show no trace of drapery which clearly establishes that even though the Digambara and Svetambara schism had come into being in the first or second century A. D. the final crisis, in the differentiation of Tirthankara icons, had not yet taken place. Hence the evidence of art from Mathura refers to Jaina worship prevalent in both the sects (in the first three centuries of the Christian era) and not the Digambara or Svetambara sect alone.
From Mathura are found a special type of sculptures, called pratima sarvatobhadrika with inscriptions on pedestals, which show a Tirthankara image on each of its four sides, facing each different
112/JAINTHOLOGY
