Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/144

no BUDDHIST ARCHITECTURE. BOOK I, their inscriptions we can easily recognise them as those known at the present day as ascribed to these previous Buddhas. 1 Naga people, and kings with their five-headed serpent-hoods, are common ; but only one instance has yet been brought to light in which the serpent can be said to be worshipped. Making love and drinking are not represented here as at Sanchi nor are females represented nude as they are on the Jaina sculptures at Mathura. All are decently clothed, from the waist downwards at least, and altogether the manners and customs at Bharaut are as much purer as the art is better than it is in the example of Sanchi. MATHURA (MUTTRA). When excavating at Mathura, General Cunningham found several pillars of a rail, which, judging from the style, is pro- bably later than that at Bharaut, but still certainly anterior to the Christian Era. The pillars, however, are only 4^ 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 Though the sculptures at Sanchi 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 stupas such as that of which the remains were excavated by Dr. Fiihrer in 1888-89. Jaina tradition had always claimed Mathura 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 stupa of Suparyva. 8 This confirms what had previously been anticipated that the Jains, as well as the Buddhists, erected stupas in honour of their 1 Tumour's 'Mahawansa,' Introd. p. 32 ; Griinwedel, ' Buddhist Art in India ' (Eng. tr.), p. 74. 2 Outlines of these sculptures are given in Gen. Cunningham's ' Archaeological Reports,' vol. iii. plate 6 ; also in Fiihrer's plates 60-64, in V. A. Smith's 'Jaina Stupa, etc., at Mathura.' 3 'Epigraphia Indica,'vol. ii. pp. 204, 32lf.