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The mound (stupa) and the votive column: Jain literature refers to the building and worship of mounds. Such mounds and commemorative columns were mainly funerary monuments. The later traditions of installing 'vanity-subduing pillars' (maana stambha) or 'pillars of glory' (kirti stambha) may have developed from the commemorative column. o intact structure of any ancient Jain mound has survived, although the remnants of the mound built at the site of liberation of Mahavira still exist (at Pavapuri). Its circumference proves that it must once have been an immense structure (1992; personal observation).
Plate 6.2 Kirti Stambha, Ahmedabad.; erected for the 2,500" nirvana anniversary of
Mahavira. (Photo courtesy of Dr W. Johnson)
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