Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

Author(s): Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Mumbai
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 626

JAINISM IN MATHURĀ IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN ERA : 161
It is rather interesting to notice foreign elements in Jainism. It has been suggested earlier that about the first century B.C. there were certain Parthians who had accepted Jainism and set up dedications. Okharikā and Ujhaţikā do not appear to be Indian names, while Dimitra could be the Indianised form of Demetrius. The inscriptions from the Kaňkāli Țilā, supposed to represent the site of some Jaina establishment30 also mention some unfamiliar names, like Akakā and Oghā.31 It is, therefore, very likely that foreigners too were accepted in the Jaina fold which had also eliminated caste-consciousness in the choice of the selection of head of religious schools.
Mathurā continued to be an important centre of the Jainas in the Gupta period. In fact the Kankāli Țilā, symbolising the Jaina monastic establishments, is supposed to have met its fate at the hands of the Mohammadan invader Mahmud of Ghazni, who invaded this sacred city and destroyed everything that came in the way of his iconoclastic zeal.
30 See Smith-The Jaina Stüpa at Mathura, Pl. LXII; cf. Janert, op. cit.,
p. 41. 31 Lüders' List, Nos. 48, 29, 43.
POCA
G.J.V. 11