Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

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

Page 135

Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life
states that a female courtesan and a lay disciple along with members of her family gave a shrine, an assembly hall, a cistern and a stone slab to the Jain sanctuary, 15 thus expanding a monastic complex that would have included a stupa. The stūpas were dedicated to a Jina, such as Mahavira; the one in the slab in Figure 5 appears to be a bas relief representation of a stupa that was dedicated to Mahāvīra, for the inscription opens with an invocation to him, and his cognizance of the lion is found atop one of the flanking pillars. It was a large stūpa, built upon a high platform, the entrance stairway of which is flanked by a yakṣa on the left and a yakṣi on the right.
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Yakṣas and yakṣis were remarkably prominent and especially important to the local population of Mathura during this early period,10 and the Ardhaphalaka Jains were tolerant of and receptive to this proclivity. Their early art includes many yakṣas and yakṣis in their pantheon of Jain deities. A famous Jain relief invoking Mahavira, which was dedicated by a female lay disciple in the Year 72 during the reign of the Mahakṣatrapa
15
See note 1, above.
16 More iconic statues of yakṣas and yakṣis have been found from the environs of Mathura dating from the second century B.C.E. to the first century C.E. than from any other single region on the Indian subcontinent. This statistic holds despite the fact that most sites at Mathura have yet to be systematically excavated. The prominence of yakṣa cults at Mathura are also attested in early Buddhist literature. The Pali Anguttara Nikaya, relates that in Mathura, "[the ground] is uneven; there is much dust; there are fierce dogs; bestial yakkhas; and alms are got with difficulty." (F. L. Woodward and E. M. Hare, trans., The Book of the Gradual Sayings (Anguttara Nikaya), 5 vols., Pali Text Society Translation Series, nos. 22, 24-27, London, Pali Text Society, 1932-36, vol. 3, p. 188. Cf. John Strong, The Legend of King Aśoka, p. 29.) One such fierce yakṣa of Mathura, named Gardabha, is said to have been converted by the Buddha in Asvaghosa's Buddhacarita. (Buddhacarita, xxi.25. The Buddhacarita or Acts of the Buddha, E. H. Johnston, trans., Delhi, 1984 (first published in Lahore, 1936), Part III, p. 59.) The prominence of yakṣas in Mathura is also reflected in the Buddhist Mülasarvästivädin Vinaya, wherein Brahmins entreat the Buddha to quell yakṣas and yakṣis who ravage the city. The Buddha subsequently converts these beings to Buddhism, and the citizens of Mathura are enjoined to build Buddhist viharas in their honor. (John Strong, The Legend and Cult of Upagupta, p. 6; Gilgit Manuscripts, 9 vols., edited by Nalinaksha Dutt, Calcutta, 1939-59, vol. 3, pt. 1, 16-17.).
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