SOAS Research Online

Abstract

It is an open question when and where Jainas first started to preserve and venerate bone relics of prominent mendicants in purpose-built stūpas in spite of their doctrinal rejection of this practice. A.A. Führer’s (1892) “List of accessions to the Lucknow Museum during the month of March 1890” records “10 pieces of old pottery filled with the ashes of some Jaina monks” excavated at the mound of Kaṅkālī Ṭīlā in Mathurā. This report on an investigation of the whereabouts of the relic vessels conducted in 2014 concludes: (i) there are no pots with ashes and bones in the store rooms dedicated to the finds at Kaṅkālī Ṭīlā at the Lucknow Museum; (ii) there are no pots inscribed with the names of Jaina monks; (iii) if in future such pots could ever be identified at the Museum, because of the lack of labelling, only the number of “10 pots” could possibly indicate that Führer’s record was accurate; (iv) if they existed, it could not be established with certainty that they actually came from Kaṅkālī Ṭīlā; (v) it is likely that they have never existed.