Studies in Jaina Art

Author(s): Umakant P Shah
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

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STUDIES IN JAINA ART
assemblies erected by gods for the Sermons of the Jinas, wherein, on a raised platform in the centre sits a Jina on one side with images of the same Jina installed on three remaining sides to make him visible to the whole audience.. Representation of four different Jinas on the four sides, is, therefore, an advancement upon the original earlier conception of a samavasarana or a Caumukha sculpture. Therefore, the Jina image.worship at Mathura in the Kuşana age was of a long standing. Even the stupa at Mathura was pretty old since an inscription on a Jaina pedestal of this period refers to it as the Vodval Stupa, built by the gods (devanirmite vodve thupe), clearly indicating that its origin was forgotten in c. second century A.D. Haribhadrasuri (c. 7th century) called it devanirmita, possibly because he did not know its origin or the name. of the Jina to whom it was originally dedicated; only later texts like the Vividha-Tirtha-Kalpa of Jinaprabhasüri ascribed it to Supärsvanatha. Probably the stupa enshrined relics of Pärśvanatha, a historical figure, who died 250 years before Mahāvīra's nirvāņa.
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The Mathura Art was rather primitive and the human figures are stiff and heavy. However, it was filled with a spirit of naturalism and freedom from canonical injunctions and shows, on the one hand, a direct continuation of the old Indian art of Yaksa primitives and of Bhårhut and Sâñcbi and on the other, the classical influence derived from Gandhara. This second phase is more conspicuous in Buddhist sculpture from Mathura.
At Junagadh, Saurastra, near Bāvā Pyārā's Math, are a group of about
1 The inscription refers to Vodva Stupa, built by Gods' which shows that in the first two centuries of the Christian era, a stūpa existed at Mathura, which was regarded as a very ancient one and the age of its erection was forgotten. But the inscription does not make it clear that it was a stupa dedicated to Supårsvanatha. Jinaprabha is the only writer who explicitly says so. There were in all five Stūpas at Mathura as can be inferred from the expression Pañcastúpanvaya used in the Paharpur Copper plate and other sources. (vide Archaeological Survey of India, Annual Report 1927-28, pp. 1071.; Premi, Jaina Sahitya Aur Itihasa, p. 497, for Pañcastüpänvaya, see Paharpur Grant dated in S. 159 478 A.D.). It is however not impossible that a stupa dedicated to this Jina also existed at Mathura. But the finds from Kankali Ţilă make no reference to Supărśva in any of the inscriptions and it is Pārsvanitha who is popular at Kankalf Tilä. It is therefore advisable to regard the Vodva Stupa, built by gods as referring to a stupa of Parsva rather than of Supăráva. Either copyists of Jinaprabha's text or Jinaprabha himself (being so late in age) made. the mistake of regarding the stupa of Parsvanatha as dedicated to Supáráva. Smith, op. cit., 13, plate vi; Vyavakära-Bhāṣya, 5. 27-28; Brhat-KalpaBhasya, V. 5824, VI. 6275; also Avasyaha Niryukti with comm. of Haribhadra, I, p. 453.