Temples of Kumbhariya

SR No.: 001571
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M A Dhaky, U S Moorty
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 394
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Art
File Size: 34 MB

Page 53

Jainism in Gujarat
Varuņaśarmaka (Vadasamā) in A.D. 976. Cāmundarāja also organized the 'praveśamahotsava' (city-entry celebration) of the Svetāmbara pontiff Vīra gani.
While several Jina metal images of the tenth century—among which a fairly large number represent those of Jina Pārsva—are available, the remains of the Jaina temples are exceedingly rare in Gujarat because of the total destruction of all religious buildings in the major cities of Gujarat in A.D. 1025-1026, again in 1217, and next in 1304 by Islamic invaders and subsequent Muslim occupation of Gujarat for several centuries. The tangible remains on the surface, therefore, of the earlier Jaina buildings are next to none, the only small exceptions being the old base and lower section (vedibandha) of the wall of the main shrine of Ādinātha (c. mid 10th cent. A.D.) together with two subsidiary shrines (late 10th cent.) in that complex located in Anandapura (Vadanagara) as also an architecturally inconsequential celllike and porchless shrine of Ambikā at Thān in Saurāstra. In the Medapāta or Mevāda and the adjoining western tract, Jaina temples were of course built, some of consequence such as at Ghānerāv (c. mid 10th century) and at Aghāța (Ahāda) (last quarter of the 10th century), the then capital of the Guhila kings, near Udepur. And in Hastikundi (Hathundi), a Jaina temple was built by the Rāştrakūta chief Vidagdharāja in early tenth century to which his son Mammața gave donations in A.D. 940, while the grandson Dhavalarāja renovated it in A.D. 997. Next, in Candrāvatī, Ker (A.D. 967), and Nandiyā in the Abu area as also in Jābālipura were built Jaina temples that were largely damaged during the invasion periods.
From the 11th century A.D., Jainism noticeably begins to gain greater strength in Gujarat. During the reign of the Solankī monarch Durlabharāja (A.D. 1009-1022), two mendicant friars-Jineśvara and Buddhisāgara of Candra kulafrom lower Rajasthan visited Anahillapātaka and by arguing, on the basis of āgamic injunctions/rules, the authenticity of the mendicant order of friars as against the abbatial of the caityavāsī monks, got permission to settle and found the mendicant establishments there which, under the strong influence of the abbots, were till then denied to the friars. That gave further impetus to Svetāmbara Jainism as a whole when, as its consequence, the strength and prestige of the abbots eventually waned. The aforenoted Jineśvara sūri composed several works: the Pancalingi-prakarana, the Viracaritra, and the Nirvana-Līlāvati-kathā in Aśāpalli, c. A.D. 1027-1035; next the Pramālakṣma with an auto-commentary, the Satsthānaka-prakarana—all of these in Sanskrit—a Kathākośa in Prakrit, and a few hymns in Sanskrit. His disciple Dhaneśvara composed the Surasundarī-kahā in Prakrit in Candrāvatī (A.D. 1035).