Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

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

Page 688

GLIMPSES OF JAINISM THROUGH ARCHAEOLOGY IN U.P. 217
wherein he is stated to have brought back the statue of a Jaina Tirthankara, probably Mahavira, originally belonging to Kalinga but forcibly taken away from there to Magadha by some Nanda monarch.
The excavations by Dr. Fuhrer at Kankali mound, Mathura have brought to light several inscribed stone slabs known as Ayagapatas. As their inscriptions read, they were dedicated for the worship of the Arhats. These early symbolic representations of the Jaina pantheon are profusely ornamented with various auspicious marks such as the svastika, a pair of fish, mangala-ghata and tri-ratna, etc. The earliest Ayagapatas bear a replica of the Jaina stupa along with the aforesaid. symbols but are devoid of any Tirthankara image. In the later specimens, the effigy of the Jina is also shown seated in the attitude of deep meditation in the centre of an Ayagapata. The carvings of the former specimens are more flat and archaic in character while the latter ones exhibit a sense of artistic supremacy. It will not be, therefore, unreasonable to believe that the Jainas too, alike the Buddhists, had developed symbolic worship prior to the date when the anthropomorphic representation of the Jainas had come in vogue. Smith is perfectly right when he observes, "Among the Jainas they. (Ayagapaṭas) probably went out of fashion at an early period as the inscriptions on them invariably show archaic characters". This is why. the earliest images of the Jaina Tirthankaras which we find in round, are datable to the early centuries of the Christian era. And if the evidence of the Hathigumpha inscription regarding the evidence of an image of a Tirthankara is to be believed it must have been an effigy of a Jina carved on Ayagapata.
Kuṣāņa Age:
The earliest images of the Jaina Tirthankaras which belong to. the Kusana age have been unearthed both at Mathura and Kausāmbi in Allahabad district of Uttar Pradesh. The beautiful specimens from Mathura are housed in the Lucknow and Mathura museums whereas the Jaina sculptures from Kauśambi are exhibited in the University. Museum, Allahabad, U. P. The images are both in sitting as well as standing postures. Standing images are invariably in the Kayotsarga. Mudra while the seated ones are carved in meditation poses. The body of a Jina must be adorned with several auspicious marks prescribed for the Mahapuruṣas. It must possess Uşnişa (Protuberance over the head), Urņā (a raised point between the eye-brows), Srivatsa, elongated