Vikram Journal 1974 05 11

SR No.: 523101
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Rammurti Tripathi
Publisher: Vikram University Ujjain
Publication Year: 1974
Total Pages: 200
Language: Hindi, English
Classification: Magazine, India_Vikram Journal, & India
File Size: 11 MB

Page 40

The Vikram Vol. XVIII No. 2 & 4, 1974
JAIN TEMPLES IN INDIA (Prof. K. D. Bajpai, University of Sagar)
For the study of the development of Jainism in India, the Jain temples and statues furnish a rich and variegated source-material. In order to give wide publicity to the tenets of a religion, it was deemed necessary to utilize the visual forms of art, such as sculpture, architecture, painting and dramatic arts.
The extant architectural remains in different parts of India indicate that the construction of Jain shrines had started during the Maurya period. The inscriptions carved in the Barabar caves near Gaya in Bihar show that Asoka, the great Maurya emperor, caused the construction of some caves for the monks of the Ajivika sect. The founder of this sect was closely associated with Tirthankara Mahavira. The Barabar cave; undoub. tedly represent the earliest rock-cut structure of a religious character. Near the Barabar hill there is another hill called Nagarjuni, which also has seves ral inscribed caves. They are in the form ancient parnasalas mentioned in ancient Indian literature.
The construction of rock-cut shrines in eastern and western India received a fillip duriug the 2nd 1st centuries A.D. In Orissa near Bhubane. shwar several extensive caves were carved out during this period. The Jain caves of Khandagiri and Udaigiri are well known. The inscription of the Jain king Kharavela of Kalinga, incised in a cave called Haioigumphi, has thrown valuable light on the achievements of this king, who brought back from Patliputra an image of Jina to his capital. The image was taken away by a king of the Nanda dynasty more than hundred years before Kharavela. From the epigraphical evidence it is known that Jainism was the State religion of Kalinga for quite a long time.
The preparation of rock-cut caves and shrines continued in India for several centuries. In western and central India and the Deccan a number of Jain temples were carved out of living rocks. Two of the Odaigiri caves near Sanchi are Jain caves. The first (No. 1) cave here represntes the archaic form of Jain temple of the Gupta style. Cave no. 20 of Udaigiri is another Fain shrine in which an artistic image of Jain Tirthankara was found. In the Gujarat-Maharashtra and western ghat regions the old rockcut Jain shrines are still preserved.
The Chalukyas of Badami and the Rastrakutas of Manyakhet followed the rock-cut architecture in their regions. At Badami, Pattadakal and Ainole, both rock-cut and structural Jain temples were constructed during the period 550 to 800 A. D.
The origin of the Drayidian form of temple architecture is tracea ble in the temples of the Chalukyas. The extensive Jain rock-cut cave at Badami is important from the point of view of decorative designs and iconography of the Jain icons. The early Jain shrines of this area generally belong to the Dravidian type of tower, having an octagonal domical finial. A few of thém represent the Nagara style of Indo-Aryan architecture. At Aihole is preserved a triple-shrined temple style,