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link with his ancestral Naga-tribe (ar digi) and Nag-worship (am 4571). The eminent scholar Dr. M.A Dhaky in his essay ‘Arhat Parsva and Dharnendra Nexus' (published 1997) supporting Shah's views suggests that in the total absence of this serpent-canopy in any of the sculptures found in the Kankali tila (otit CTCT) of the Mathuraexcavations dating back to 1st century B.C., the so called depiction is obviously a Nirgrantha (Fifa) adaptation of the Brahmanical myth of Sesh-Nag (1971) supporting Globe of Earth on his head or followed from the myth of Krishna-Govardhan episode of Hindu-scriptures. Likewise the embryo-transfer-myth could be interpreted rationally to be a creation of the later Jain-Acharyas to avoid the Brahmanical parental linkage of Lord Mahavir. The medieval period between 5th to 10th century AD. saw a phenomenal upsurge of hatred against Boudhas (allas) and Jains generated by the followers of Adi-Guru Shankaracharya when not only a vast number of Jain shrines were demolished or destroyed but also a disheartening number of Jain and Boudh Acharyas and Muni's (f) were slain in Southern India. The possibility of one-up-manship creating such myth can not be ruled out.
The most revered Jain scholar of the 20th century Pundit Sukhlal Sanghvi has in his critical analysis of such mythical representations in Lord Mahavir's life challenged the Embryo-transfer episode (Eir atefotot), and suggested that it could be 'an addition to the Agamic literature by later Acharyas. What gave strength to his argument was the fact that the Jain scriptures of the Digambar sect have completely ignored this transfer episode. Mahavir according to them was born of Trishala and there is no mention of Devananda as Mahavir's mother of conception at all.
The Archaeological findings of the Kankali tila (archaisit CT) in Mathura and the inscriptions found there support the above view. The famous Western Archaeologist and Historian Vincent Smith has in his treatise “Jaina Stupa & other Antiquities of Mathura" dated the inscriptions and sculptures to be of 1st century B.C. These sculptures faithfully depict most of the important events of Lord Mahavir's life but the total absence of the Embryo transfer-episode in those depictions clearly is a pointer to its concoction later on.
