Jain stupa

The Jain stupa was a type of stupa erected by the Jains for devotional purposes.

A Jain stupa dated to the 2nd century BCE-1st century CE was excavated at Mathura in the 19th century, in the Kankali Tila mound. The oldest inscribed sculpture is dated to 150 B.C. There is also a brief dedication in a more ancient and archaic Prakrit dialect, making it clear that there was a Jaina temple in Mathura before 150 B.C. as well.

Legends state that the earliest Jain stupa for the 23rd Tirthankara was built in the 8th century BCE, before the time of the JinaParsvanatha.

Jain scriptures also describe stupa construction and veneration associated with Tirthankaras predating Pārśvanātha, including the Vividha Tirtha Kalpa's Mathurapuri Kalpa section by Jinaprabha Suri (drawing on earlier traditions), which details a deva-built stupa originally erected for the 7th Tirthankara Suparshvanatha and later encased in bricks during Pārśvanātha’s time. Similar references to chaitya-stupa appear in the Ācārāṅga Sūtra, Bhagavatī Sūtra, and related Āgamas written in Ardhamagadhi Prakrit.

There is a possibility that the Buddhists adopted stupa worships from Jains. 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. The name for stupa as used in Jain inscriptions is the standard word "thupe".

Moreover, according to The Jain Stupa and Other Antiquities of Mathura, the Mathura Stupa was already so ancient that the Samvat 79 inscription (156–157 CE) refers to it as being built by the Deva deities themselves. Therefore it is claimed that it was probably erected several centuries before the Christian era, and may predate oldest Buddhist Stupa.