Materials Used for Jaina Inscriptions

Author(s): D B Diskalkar
Publisher: Z_Vijay_Vallabh_suri_Smarak_Granth_012060.pdf

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ACARYA VIJAYAVALLABHASŪRI COMMEMORATION VOLUME
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Stūpas : The Jainas are not really builders of stūpas like the Buddhists, but from the vast remains of a Jaina stūpa found at Kankāli Țilā in Mathura which are indistinguishable from those of the Buddhist stūpas, it seems that in the early period the Jainas also erected stūpas surrounded by stone railings with reliefs of various kinds on which inscriptions were engraved. One of the beautiful Jaina Āyāgapațas found in the ruins gives a picture of a Jaina stupa. The ruins of the Jaina stūpa at Mathura have given us a number of donatory inscriptions exactly like the Buddhist inscriptions. These can be assigned to the first or second century A.D. Since no Jaina stupa of the kind of a later date is found anywhere in India, it seems that the Jainas had given up the practice of erecting stūpas and had adopted that of building sikhara temples.
Temples: The Jaina temples were dedicated to the Tīrthankaras or other minor deities of Jaina mythology. Except for a few iconographical and sculptural details, the Jaina temples do not differ from the Bhahmanical temples. The sacred places of the Jainas are always crowded with temples and the temples with Jaina gods and goddesses which generally bear inscriptions. If the temple is very important as at Sravana Belgola it is always visited by pilgrims who leave behind records of their visits and donations. The constant repairs and additions to the old temple made sometimes by hereditary masons give opportunities for setting up inscriptions.
Stone images : The largest number of Jaina inscriptions are found inscribed on the pedestals of stone images of the Tīrthankaras and minor Jaina deities set up from time to time in the Jaina temples. Idol worship being very popular with the Jainas, innumerable Jaina images made of stone and of different sizes, from colossal to miniature, have been found all over India even from Sindh (at Varavan) where at one time Jainism flourished. The origin of the Jaina image is uncertain though from the mention of a Jaina image in the Hathigumpha inscription of Khāravela of Kalinga of the first or second century B.C. as having been carried away as a war trophy by a Nanda king presupposes the existence of Jaina idol worship in the Nanda period, i.e. in the fourth century B.C. If the tradition, that images of Mahāvīra under the name of Jīvitasvāmi began to be worshipped even in his lifetime, is believed, idol worship can be said to have begun with the Jainas from the sixth century B.C. But Jaina images begin to appear only from the first century A.D. at Mathura and they became very popular only from the tenth century onwards as few