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CHAPTER 8
8.1 INFERENCE
The Jain religion has its long and lively history dating back to 2500 BC. As per Jain tradition, Lord Sri Mahavir was the last and twenty-fourth Tirthankar (Spritual teacher of Jain Religion). All the twenty-four Tirthankars gave message for the path of liberation - moksha to the world. Out of these twenty-four Tirthankars, twenty-two had attained nirvana from the holy land of Bihar and Jharkhand. In addition, many saints attained nirvana in this region. In this regard this region has a number of pilgrimage sites like Khandgiri hill , Udaygiri hill, Patna, Vaishali, Ara, Jamui, Bhagapur, Banka, Nalanda, Rajgir, Nawada, Barakar, Palganj, Sammed Shikharji, Parasnath, Kolua pahad. The uniqueness of Jain religion is that, they worship the living being who came to this world, lived like a common person and got enlightened and attained nirvana. They all are known as Tirthankars. As per the Jain literature, in life of a Tirthankar five chief auspicious events are believed to occur. These are known as Chyavan kalyanak, Janma kalyanak, Diksha Kalyanal, Kevala Janana Kalyanak, Nairvana Kalyanak.
As per Jain literature, the tradition of worshiping statue has existed in Jainism, as evidenced from the "torso” found in Indus Valley Civilizatin in 2000 BC and in Kumharar, Patliputra dating back to 300 BC. In Jain Architecture, it's a practice of constructing an enclosure for worshiping the statue, which lead to construction of temple with timber or in brick.
As per literature review, no exhaustive work in the area of Jain Architecture was found. Different scholars have concluded that, Jain Architecture grew parallel with contemporary Architecture style of India. All the religion and culture have its distinct feature and style. Therefore, there is unique style of Architecture with the Jain Architecture also. It is the first attempt to analyse the features of Jain caves and temples through the case study of thirty-two caves of Udaygiri, Khandgiri and fifty-eight Jain temples of Bihar and Jharkhand.
In present research work all the places were identified, which are pilgrimage site or otherwise important to Jain religion in the Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha. As per Hathi
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| SR No. | 034443 |
| Book Title | Critical Analysis of Jain Architecture in Bihar Region and its Influence on Regional Architecture |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Ravish Kumar |
| Publisher | Department of Architecture National Institute of Technology Patna |
| Publication Year | 2018 |
| Total Pages | 359 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 31 MB |