Jain stupa

The Jain stupa was a type of stupa erected by the Jains for devotional purposes. A Jain stupa dated to the 1st century BCE-1st century CE was excavated at Mathura in the 19th century, in the Kankali Tila mound.^[3]

Jain stupa

Jain votive plaque with Jain stupa, the "Vasu Śilāpaṭa" ayagapata, 1st century CE, excavated from Kankali Tila, Mathura.^[1]
The inscription reads:
"Adoration to the Arhat Vardhamana. The daughter of the matron (?) courtesan Lonasobhika (Lavanasobhika), the disciple of the ascetics, the junior (?) courtesan Vasu has erected a shrine of the Arhat, a hall of homage (ayagasabha), cistern and a stone slab at the sanctuary of the Nirgrantha Arhats, together with her mother, her daughter, her son and her whole household in honour of the Arhats."^[2]

Sivayasa Ayagapata, with stupa fragment, Kankali Tila, 75-100 CE.

Jain legends state that the earliest Jain stupa was built in the 8th century BCE, before the time of the Jina Parsvanatha.^[4]

There is a possibly that the Jains adopted stupa worships from the Buddhists, but that is an unsettled point.^[5] However the Jain stupa has a peculiar cylindrical three-tier structure, which is quite reminiscent of the Samavasarana, by which it was apparently ultimately replaced as an object of worship.^[6] The name for stupa as used in Jain inscriptions is the standard word "thupe".^[6]

Mathura Jain stupas

A Jain stupa dated to the 1st century BCE-1st century CE was excavated at Mathura in the 19th century, in the Kankali Tila mound.^[3]

• 
  View of the Jain Stupa as excavated at Kankali Tila, c. 1889
• 
  Plan of the stupa at Kankali Tila
• 
  Cross-section of the stupa at Kankali Tila

Numerous associated religious works of art were also discovered during the excavations.^[3] Many of these are votive tablets, called ayagapatas.^[7] They are numerous, and some of the earliest ones have been dated to circa 50-20 BCE.^[8]

According to Jain legends, five Jain stupas were built in Mathura.^[6]

Ayagapatas

See also: Art of Mathura

The Jain devotional reliefs called Ayagapatas, particularly that dedicated by Vasu, shows a probable design of the Jain stupa.^[6] The stupa drum is set on a high platform, and accessed by a flight of stairs and an ornate torana gate, quite similar in style to the toranas of Sanchi.^[6] Niches with images can be seen in front of the platform.^[6] The drum of the stupa is elongated and cylindrical, and formed of three superposed tiers separated by railings and decorated bands.^[6] The stupa starts to round off only above these three tiers.^[6] The platform may have been squared, with Persepolitan-type columns in each corner, similar to those seen in the Vasu Ayagapata.^[6] On the Vasu ayagapata, one of the Persepolitan pillars is surmounted by a Dharmachakra wheel, and the other pillar was probably surmounted by an animal, as seen in other similar ayagapatas.^[6]

The Sivayasa ayagapata shows clearly two triratna symbols on top of the torana, as well as a central flame palmette design.^[6]

• 
  Jain torana with triratna symbols and flame palmette designs on top.^[6]
• 
  "Persian Achaemenian" style capitals appearing in ayagapatas, Mathura, 15-50 CE.^[9][10][11]

Jain stupas in narrative reliefs

Kankali Tila architrave with Gandharva or Centaurs worshipping a Jain Stupa, Mathura, circa 100 BCE^[12]

Sculpture from the Mathura archaeological site (Kankali Tila) that depicts the last four Tirthankaras around a stupa, c. 51 CE.

Platform of a Jain Stupa at Sirkap, near Taxila.^[13]

By 100 BCE, a relief from Mathura is known, the Kankali Tila architrave, representing centaurs worshipping a Jain stupa.^[14][15]

Here again the Jain stupa in the middle of the relief is of cylindrical type with a three-tier design, separated by three horizontal railings.^[6]

These reliefs are among the first known examples of Jain sculpture.^[16] The centaurs appearing in the Mathura reliefs, as in other places such as Bodh Gaya, are generally considered as Western borrowings.^[17] Robert Graves (relying on the work of Georges Dumézil,^[18] who argued for tracing the centaurs back to the Indian Gandharva), speculated that the centaurs were a dimly remembered, pre-Hellenic fraternal earth cult who had the horse as a totem.^[19]

Jain stupa worshipped by "Kinnaras" and Gandharva or Centaurs, Mathura, circa 100 BCE.^[12]

See also

• Jain temple
• Vaddamanu