Lessons of Ahimsa and Anekanta for Contemporary Life

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

Page 138

Sonya Quintanilla, “Exemplars of Anekānta and Ahimsā”
thus showing their adherence to ahimsā. Shortly thereafter, full scale Jinas carved in the round were being produced at Mathura, presumably by the impetus of the Ardhaphālaka Jains, like the standing Pārśva of the early first century B.C.E. (Figure 23). Images of Jinas subsequently are found frequently in the Jain art of Mathura through first century C.E. Thus, the strong tradition of making images of Jinas as objects of worship in human form seems to have been started under the auspices of the open-minded Ardhaphālakas at Mathura. The veneration of Tirthānkara images continues to be central to the Jain faith to this day.
The Jains of Mathura, who, before the mid-second century C.E. belonged to the Ardhaphālaka sect, as far as the currently available evidence indicates, had been making human images of Jinas since the second century B.C.E. They created a climate of openness and tolerance, by inviting members of other religions, various ethnicities, and people from all walks of life into their fold. They adopted monuments, images and practices associated with contemporaneous religions that were familiar and popular among the residents of Mathura. Consequently, they successfully attracted a large, wealthy, and diverse following, and became instrumental for the production of a great deal of art for their grand monastic complexes, and, as far as the archaeological evidence attests, they became a dominant religious group in Mathura.
The other religions of the area then responded and seemed to follow the Ardhaphālaka model in ways such as the making of human images for worship. The earliest surviving image of the Buddha in human form was found in Mathura and is datable to the early first century C.E. (Figure 24). It bears close resemblance to images of Jinas produced for their Ardhaphālaka neighbors, such as the seated Pārśva from the center of an āyāgapata (Figure 12). After this time the image cult among the Buddhists gradually gained momentum, such that by the early second century C.E., colossal stone Buddhas were being exported
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