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Contribution of Jainism to Indian Culture :: 127
(A) Temples
As the Jaina religion considers construction of temples as a meritorious act, the Jainas have constructed an usually larger number of temples throughout India. Nearly 90 per cent of temples are the gifts of single wealthy individuals and as such the Jaina temples are distinguished for elaborate details and exquisite finish.
Of these innumerable Jaina temples, the two marble temples at Mount Abu in Rajasthan are considered as the most notable contributions of the Jainas in the domain of architecture. The two temples are famous as unsurpassed models of Western or Gujarati style of architecture which is characterised by a free use of columns carved with all imaginable richness, strut brackets, and exquisite marble ceilings with cusped pendants. The temples are known for the beauty and delicacy of the carving and for the richness of the design. As Cousens remarks:
“The amount of beautiful ornamental detail spread over these temples in the minutely carved decoration of ceilings, pillars, door ways, panels and niches is simply marvellous; the crisp, thin, translucent, shell-like treatment of the marble surpasses anything seen elsewhere and some of the designs are veritable dreams of beauty. The work is so delicate that an ordinary chiselling would have been disastrous. It is said that much of it was produced by scrapping the marble away, and that the masons were paid by the amount of marble dust so removed."
Again, the Jaina temple at Rāṇakpur in Mewar, a part of Rajasthan (which was built in 1440 A.D.), is the most complex and extensive Jaina temple in India and the most complete for the ritual of the sect. The temple covers altogether about 48,000 sq. feet of ground and on the merits of its design, the notable art-historian Dr. Fergusson remarks that:
“The immense number of parts in the building, and their general smallness, prevents its laying claim to anything like architectural grandeur; but their variety, their beauty of detail-no two pillars in the whole building being exactly
