Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 4

Author(s): R P Poddar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

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Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin No. 4
Returning to our Bharhut copings which are on top of the stone. railings, we see that they are arraoged in three zones, on the lower ono we have our row of bulls hanging on network, in the middle zone, figures and plants in a decorative manner are carved, while in the third zone, on the very top of the coping, the so-called altar or battlement frieze appears which consists of three steps, and a top-piece above it. The empty spaces in between are filled with lotus-leaves.
It is again in the Jaina Canon that we find the most archaic description of Mount Meru, called Mandara. Here three terraces (kande) are clearly distinguished, and the Mandara-cūliyā on top of them is mentioned. I It is also said that these terraces are surrounded by lotus-ponds. It is clear that this r. ference well agrees with the battlement frieze at Bharhut which we described above.
As a result of thess findings we can conclude that both the Jaina Canon, and the battlement frieze at Bharhut have preserved the oldest representations of Mt. Su-Meru.
In later times four, and more frequently five terraces of this Mountain of the World are referred to.
G. Garbini, "the stepped Pinnacle in Ancieot Near East” in : East and West, New Series Vol. 9, Nos. 1-2, Rome 1958, pp. 85-91, has given evidence of the same art motif on Ancient Babylonian, Assyrian, and Jranian monuments, and pieces of art, which he also could trace in Mohenjo Daro belonging to the 2nd and lrst Millenium B. C. He observes that the stepped pinnacle had a religious significance, crowning sacred buildings, as a symbol of the sacred cosmic mountain. Garbini has shown that this symbol originated in ancient Iran, from where it migrated to Babylonia and Assyria, and to India. In India this ancient symbol was simply translated into the concept of the three-stepped Mt. Meru with its cüdā on its top.
1.
See Jambuddiva-pannatti 108 (Suttāgame II, pp. 625-626).