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APPENDIX
1:29
Jätaka and later are well-known. The structural conception could have appealed to Indians at any stage.
Again, the influence of Persian artists in Asoka's court cannot be doubted, even though there may be difference of opinions regarding details of such an influence. These artists, could also have been responsible for the introduction of the Ziggurat principle in the architecture of the funeral mounds, the stūpas erected by Aśoka. A number of Persian artists would have entered into India, after the destruction of the Achaemenian Empire in the 4th cent. B.C.
The extent of influence of the Ziggurat on the stūpa, and (through stūpa) on the Jaina Samavasarana is a different matter, but the influence as such is quite probable and deserves careful consideration,
That the Samavasaraņa is nothing but an adoption of the Stūpa architecture to Jaina theological use is self-evident to those who read the various texts describing the Samavasarana cited in the preceding pages.
It was suggested by some scholars that the description of the Yānavimāna, the heavenly-car, given in the Rayapaseņaiyam, sů. 45 ff., is an eyewitness account of the Jaina Ştūpas of the Kuşāņa age. True it is that descriptions of some of the parts of Yāna-vimāra, can be applied to certain parts of the stúpa, but the constituents or the plan of the Yāna-Vimāna are quite different from that of any stūpa, Descriptions of walls, floors, pillars, reliefs, paintings, etc. would naturally be applicable to the Kuşāna art specimens, but they do not exhaust the description of the stūpa structure, nor does the plan of the Yāna-Vimāna show any resemblance with the plan of a stūpa.
The long descriptions of the Vimana or Heavenly abode of Suryabhadeva, in Rayapaseņaiyam, sūtras 76 ff. are however interesting as they provide us with descriptioas of various part of different structures, etc. The toranagateways are elaborately described and the description as well applies to the torana-gateways of a stūpa, a shrine, a palace or a fortification. Here in the Sudharma-sabhã of the god we find reference to Caitya-stūpas (sū. 124, Becaradasa's ed. pp. 115 ff.) which is the same as found in the Jivăjivābhigama sūtra etc. referred to before. The stūpas are said to be mounted on manipithikas.
The description of the Vimăna of Suryābha (sūtras 76 ff.) is however very interesting as it describes many art-motifs of the age (c. 300 A.D. when the Mathurā vācană of the Jaina texts took place), but the plan of the elaborate Jaina (or Buddhist ) stūpa is not obtained here. This can only be inferred from the account of the Samavasaraņa.
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