サカ＝クシャン時代のマトゥラーにおけるマニバドラ信仰の社会背景について : 通商路と仏教遺跡の奉献者を手がかりに=A Consideration on the Social Background of the Cult of Maṇibhadra Yaksa in Mathurā during Saka-Kushan Period
Many Yakṣa images have been reported from Mathurā and its surrounding region. Among them, what attracts us is a huge Yakṣa image, whose height being 2.6 meters, found from Pārkhaln. Still more huge Naṇibhadra image, whose height is estimated about 3.6 meters, has aiso been reported from the nearby Baroda village. It so happened that they had been found in the area along the ancient trade route connecting Mathurā and Vidiśa and further to Ujjain and other trading centers of Saka-Kushan period. Besides, it is known that Maṇibhadra Yakṣa was the guardian devatā of traders and travelers from the Epic literature. In this paper, we try to examine the nature of the cult of Maṇibhadra, by observing the condition of ancient Indian trade routes, especially in relation to the importance of Mathurā as a regional metropolice. We also try to examine the mobility of Buddhist lay devotees, who seem to have utilized the network of trade routes in Ancient India, by examining Buddhist dedicatory inscrilptions not only in Mathurā but also in Sāñcī, Bhārhut, Jummar. Kārliī and in Bedsa. Not only monks and nuns, but also Upāsakas and Upasikās, who gained wealth through commercial activities, living in far-away distant regions seem to have visited those Buddhist Stūpas and Cave temples to pay homages. The Maṇibhadra images found in Mathurā may have provided safe cradles for those travellers who used the trade routes.
