History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c13.s2: Mathurâ (Muttra).
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c13.s2
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Mathurâ (Muttra).
v1.c13.s2.1
When excavating at Mathurâ, General Cunningham found several pillars of a rail, which, judging from the style, is probably later than that at Bharaut, but still certainly anterior to the Christian Era. The pillars, however, are only 4½ ft. high, and few traces of the top rail or of the intermediate discs have been found. Each pillar is adorned by a figure of a nude female in high relief, singularly well executed, richly adorned with necklaces and bangles, and a bead belt or truss around their middles. Each stands on a crouching dwarf or demon, and above each, in a separate compartment, are the busts of two figures, a male and female, on a somewhat smaller scale, either making love to each other, or drinking something stronger than water.²
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² Outlines of these sculptures are given in Gen. Cunningham's 'Archæological Reports,' vol. iii. plate 6; also in Führer's plates 60-64, in V. A. Smith's 'Jaina Stûpa, etc., at Mathurâ.'
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Though the sculptures at Sânchi and Katak have made us familiar with some strange scenes, of what might be supposed an anti-Buddhistic tendency, this rail, we cannot now doubt, belonged to a group of Jaina temples and monastic buildings of a very early age. We do not, indeed, know if the rail was straight or circular, or to what class of building it was attached; but it is pretty certain that these pillars belonged to one or more Jaina stûpas such as that of which the remains were excavated by Dr. Führer in 1888-89. Jaina tradition had always claimed Mathurâ as one of the centres of their sect, and an inscription found there and dated in the year 79 of the Kushan kings, records the consecration of a statue to the stûpa of Supârsva.³ This confirms what had previously been anticipated—that the Jains, as well as the Buddhists, erected stûpas in honour of their prophets, and that their art did not differ materially from that of the latter.¹
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³ 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. ii. pp. 204, 321f.
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¹ Bühler, 'Legend of the Jaina Stûpa at Mathurâ'; and '*Epigraphia Indica*,' vol. ii. pp. 311 *et seqq.* and plates; see also the curious tale about Kanishka and a Jaina stûpa that he worshipped by mistake.—'*Journal Asiatique*,' IXᵉ sér. tome viii. (1896), pp. 458ff. Conf. *Arite*, p. 54, note 1.