Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

Author(s): Tara Sethia
Publisher: California State Polytechnic University Pomona

Page 125

Exemplars of Anekānta and Ahimsā: The Case of the Early Jains of Mathura
in Art and Epigraphy SONYA R. QUINTANILLA University of California, Irvine
The earliest surviving representations of Jain monks in art are found in the stone sculptures produced as early as the second century B.C.E. at Mathura, a city located about one hundred miles southeast of Delhi. The Jain monks depicted in these early works belonged to a special sect, whose members can be identified by the broad piece of pleated cloth draped over the left forearms of the otherwise nude monks. (See especially Figures 2, 4, 6, 10, 12, and 14)." In inscriptions carved on works of art in which these monks appear, they called themselves nirgranthas,' a term found
All figures referred to in the text appear at the end of the article, pp. 133-142. An example of an inscription in which the term Nirgrantha occurs is on a stone plaque carved with two flying Ardhaphalaka monks venerating a stūpa (Figures 5 and 6). It reads as follows: 1. namo ārahato vardhamānasa ādāye ganika2. ye lonaśobhikāye dhitu śramanasävikaye 3. nädaye ganikāye vasuye arahato devik[u]la' 4. āyāgasabha prapa śil[a]pato patisth[a]pito nigatha5. na(m) ārahatāyātane sah[a] matare bhaginiye dhitare putrena 6. sarvena ca parijanena arahata pujāye (Translation: “Adoration to the arhat Vardhamana! A shrine of the arhat (ärahato devikula), an assembly hall for an object of worship (åyågasabha), a cistern (prapā), and a stone slab (silāpata) were established in the sanctuary of the Nirgrantha arhats by Vasu, a junior (?) courtesan, [who is the daughter of Loņaśobhikā, the matron (?) courtesan, and the female disciple of the ascetics (śramanasāvikā), with her mother, sister, daughter, son and her whole household, for the sake of honoring of the arhats.")
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