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{{short description|Type of stupa erected by the Jains for devotional purposes}}
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| header= Jain stupa
| image1 = Holi relief, Mathura, c1st century CE.jpg
| footer =<center>Jain votive plaque with Jain stupa, the "Vasu Śilāpaṭa" ayagapata, 1st century CE, excavated from Kankali Tila, Mathura.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Quintanilla |first1=Sonya Rhie |title=Āyāgapaṭas: Characteristics, Symbolism, and Chronology |journal=Artibus Asiae |date=2000 |volume=60 |issue=1 |pages=79–137 Fig.26 |doi=10.2307/3249941 |issn=0004-3648|jstor=3249941 }}</ref><br>The inscription reads:<br><small>''"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."''<ref>{{cite web |title=Collections-Virtual Museum of Images and Sounds |url=https://vmis.in/ArchiveCategories/collection_gallery_zoom?id=1335&siteid=541&minrange=0&maxrange=0&assetid=72574&self_archive_id=161621&index=124 |website=vmis.in}}</ref></small></center>
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[[File:Sculpture panel showing a Jain stupa and torana, Mathura 75-100 CE.jpg|thumb|290px|''Sivayasa Ayagapata'', with stupa fragment, [[Kankali Tila]], 75-100 CE.]]
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.<ref name="TJS">{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924012251140#page/n0/mode/2up |title=The Jain stûpa and other antiquities of Mathurâ|last =Smith| first=Vincent Arthur |year=1901 |publisher= KFrank Luker, Superintendent, Government Press, North-Western Provinces and Oudh |location=Allahabad}}</ref>

Jain legends state that the earliest Jain stupa was built in the 8th century BCE, before the time of the [[Arihant (Jainism)|Jina]] [[Parsvanatha]].<ref>"According to one legend, the earliest Jain stupa (a funerary or reliquary mound, usually grandly ornamented and enclosed by a railing with an elaborate gateway) was built before the time of the Jina Parsvanatha in the eighth century B.C." in {{cite book |title=Arts of Asia |date=1994 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i4brAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref>

There is a possibly that the Jains adopted stupa worships from the Buddhists, but that is an unsettled point.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sethia |first1=Tara |title=Ahimsā, Anekānta, and Jaininsm |date=2004 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. |isbn=978-81-208-2036-4 |page=200 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QYdlKv8wBiYC&pg=PA200 |language=en}}</ref> 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.<ref name="UPS16"/> The name for stupa as used in Jain inscriptions is the standard word ''"thupe"''.<ref name="UPS16"/>

==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.<ref name="TJS"/> Numerous associated religious works of art were also discovered during the excavations.<ref name="TJS"/> Many of these are votive tablets, called ''[[ayagapata]]s''.<ref name="Smith">The Jain stûpa and other antiquities of Mathurâ by Smith, Vincent Arthur [https://archive.org/details/cu31924012251140 Plate XIV]</ref> They are numerous, and some of the earliest ones have been dated to circa 50-20 BCE.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Quintanilla |first1=Sonya Rhie |title=History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9789004155374 |page=403, Fig. 146 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7Cb8IkZVSMC&pg=PA403 |language=en}}</ref>

According to Jain legends, five Jain stupas were built in Mathura.<ref name="UPS16">{{cite book |last1=Shah |first1=Umakant Premanand |title=Jaina-rūpa-maṇḍana |date=1987 |publisher=Abhinav Publications |isbn=978-81-7017-208-6 |pages=15–17 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_y_P4duSXsC&pg=PA16 |language=en}}</ref>

==Ayagapatas==
{{see also|Art of Mathura}}
The Jain devotional reliefs called [[Ayagapata]]s, particularly that dedicated by Vasu, shows a probable design of the Jain stupa.<ref name="UPS16"/> 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]].<ref name="UPS16"/> Niches with images can be seen in front of the platform.<ref name="UPS16"/> The drum of the stupa is elongated and cylindrical, and formed of three superposed tiers separated by railings and decorated bands.<ref name="UPS16"/> The stupa starts to round off only above these three tiers.<ref name="UPS16"/> The platform may have been squared, with [[Persepolis|Persepolitan]]-type columns in each corner, similar to those seen in the Vasu Ayagapata.<ref name="UPS16"/> 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.<ref name="UPS16"/>

The Sivayasa ayagapata shows clearly two [[triratna]] symbols on top of the torana, as well as a central [[flame palmette]] design.<ref name="UPS16"/>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Jain Torana on an Ayagapata at Kankali Tila 75-100 CE.jpg|Jain torana with [[triratna]] symbols and [[flame palmette]] designs on top.<ref name="UPS16"/>
File:Persian Achaemenian style capitals in Mathura 15-50 CE.jpg|thumb|"[[Achaemenid Empire|Persian Achaemenian]]" style [[capital (architecture)|capitals]] appearing in [[ayagapata]]s, Mathura, 15-50 CE.<ref>"the massive pillars in the Persian Achaemenian style" in {{cite book |last1=Shah |first1=Chimanlal Jaichand |title=Jainism in north India, 800 B.C.-A.D. 526 |date=1932 |publisher=Longmans, Green and co. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=InkrAAAAIAAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>"The Ayagapata which had been set up by Simhanddika, anterior to the reign of Kanishka, and which is assignable to a period not later than 1 A.D., is worth notice because of the typical pillars in the Persian-Achaemenian style" in {{cite book |title=Bulletin of the Baroda Museum and Picture Gallery |date=1949 |publisher=Baroda Museum |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G-moE4Cjv50C |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kumar |first1=Ajit |title=Bharhut Sculptures and their untenable Sunga Association |journal=Heritage: Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies in Archaeology |date=2014 |volume=2 |pages=223‐241 |url=https://www.academia.edu/10237709 |language=en}}</ref>
</gallery>

==Jain stupas in narrative reliefs==
[[File:Centaur architrave Kankali Tila Mathura 100 BCE.jpg|thumb|290px|[[Kankali Tila]] architrave with [[Gandharva]] or Centaurs worshipping a Jain [[Stupa]], Mathura, circa 100 BCE<ref name="BRILL">{{cite book |last1=Quintanilla |first1=Sonya Rhie |title=History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9789004155374 |pages=Fig. 21 and 22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7Cb8IkZVSMC&pg=PA22 |language=en}}</ref>]]
[[File:Kankali Tila (Samvat 95).jpg|thumb|290px|<center>Sculpture from the [[Mathura]] archaeological site ([[Kankali Tila]]) that depicts the last four [[Tirthankaras]] around a stupa, c. 51 CE.</center>]]
[[File:Temple with columns visible - Sirkap.jpg|thumb|Platform of a Jain Stupa at [[Sirkap]], near [[Taxila]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bronkhorst |first1=Johannes | author-link=Johannes Bronkhorst |title=How the Brahmins Won: From Alexander to the Guptas |date=2016 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9789004315518 |page=466 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=muAzDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA466 |language=en}}</ref>]]
By 100 BCE, a relief from Mathura is known, the [[:File:Veneration of a stupa Kankali Tila.jpg|Kankali Tila architrave]], representing [[centaurs]] worshipping a Jain stupa.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Quintanilla |first1=Sonya Rhie |title=History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE |date=2007 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=9789004155374 |pages=36–51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X7Cb8IkZVSMC&pg=PA36 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="EIAA">{{cite book |last1=Kumar |first1=Raj |title=Essays on Indian Art and Architecture |date=2003 |publisher=Discovery Publishing House |isbn=9788171417155 |pages=50–51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BT77yuqxGj4C&pg=PA50 |language=en}}</ref>

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.<ref name="UPS16"/>

These reliefs are among the first known examples of [[Jain]] sculpture.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cort |first=John | author-link=John E. Cort |title=Framing the Jina: Narratives of Icons and Idols in Jain History |date=2010 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780199739578 |pages=25–26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MDBpq23-0QoC&pg=PA25 |language=en}}</ref> The centaurs appearing in the Mathura reliefs, as in other places such as [[Bodh Gaya]], are generally considered as Western borrowings.<ref>"The hippocamps, the tritons, centaurs and other weird creatures, which certainly were borrowed from Western Art, occur at Gaya and other places, in the sculptures of the early period. Forms more or less similar occur at Mathura and Arnaravati." {{cite book |last1=Banerjee |first1=Gauranga Nath |title=Hellenism in ancient India |date=1920 |publisher=Calcutta |page=[https://archive.org/details/hellenisminancie00banerich/page/64 64] |url=https://archive.org/details/hellenisminancie00banerich}}</ref> [[Robert Graves]] (relying on the work of [[Georges Dumézil]],<ref>Dumézil, ''Le Problème des Centaures'' (Paris 1929) and ''Mitra-Varuna: An essay on two Indo-European representations of sovereignty'' (1948. tr. 1988).</ref> who argued for tracing the centaurs back to the [[Hindu|Indian]] [[Gandharva]]), speculated that the centaurs were a dimly remembered, pre-Hellenic fraternal earth cult who had the horse as a [[totem]].<ref>Graves, ''The Greek Myths'', 1960 § 81.4; § 102 "Centaurs"; § 126.3;.</ref>

[[File:Centaur architrave Kankali Tila Mathura 100 BCE detail.jpg|thumb|400px|center|Jain stupa worshipped by "''[[Kinnara]]s''" and [[Gandharva]] or [[Centaurs]], Mathura, circa 100 BCE.<ref name="BRILL"/>]]

==See also==
* [[Jain temple]]
* [[Vaddamanu]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Jainism topics}}

[[Category:Jainism]]
[[Category:Jain temples]]

Jain stupa - Revision history

CleanupBot at 16:44, 23 April 2021