Jaina Art and Architecture Vol 02

SR No.: 011013
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: A Ghosh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith
Publication Year: 1975
Total Pages: 326
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 260

CHAPTER 28
WEST INDIA
WEST INDIA MAY BE MARKED AS ONE OF THE REGIONS WHERE ARTISTIC AND architectural activities began in very early times. In fact, the earliest remains of a structural temple, so far discovered in India, are those of the circular temple found at Bairat near Jaipur in Rajasthan and datable in the third century B.C. The role of Rajasthan in the development of the sikhara type of temple may also be noted from the fragments of an amalaka, the crowning member of a Sikhara temple, belonging to the fifth century A.D., unearthed at Nagari near Chitor. This part of the country appears to have made positive contributions to the evolution of Nägara temple-style from its genesis in the archaic Sikhara temples of the Gupta and post-Gupta periods. For reasons not difficult to surmise, the temples of the transitional phases, covering a period approximately extending from the fifth to the eighth century, have almost totally disappeared. The temples showing developed Nāgara characteristics are, however, not infrequently met with in the region, and most of them may be assigned to some time between the eighth and the middle of the thirteenth century.
The closing years of the thirteenth century and the early years of the fourteenth are notable in the history of west India for the devastating campaigns of the rulers of Delhi. Before the repeated campaigns, especi led by 'Alau'd-Din Khilji, crumbled the strongholds of the age-old Hindu rulers of Rajasthan and Gujarat, and as a consequence the religious zeal and material greed of the invaders got a free hand in the destruction of numerous shrines in western India. The havoc wrought by the conquering army was not limited to the destruction of religious structures alone; it also stirred the heart and mind of the sufferers. When the people of the region succeeded in overcoming the shock, they emerged with certain new values, leaving behind many of their cherished norms of olden days. In a sense, medieval age made its clear advent into the life of the people then onwards.
It is no mean achievement on the part of the Guhila rulers of Mewar that they freed Chitor, the traditional stronghold of the Rajputs, within a decade of its capture by the Khiljis. Immediately after the liberation of Chitor
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