Encyclopaedia of Jaina Studies Vol 01 Jaina Art and Architecture

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain, Others
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 11

PREFACE
The present volume is a study of Jaina art and architecture from the earliest time to the thirteenth century A.D., but in regard to Jaina painting it goes even beyond this time bracket since the bulk of material available to us is posterior to this date. It is of late that the world of scholars started recognising Jaina contributions to Indian art and architecture and wrote some handsome volumes on them. But the materials so far published are scattered and brief and hence it is very hard for the readers to have a complete picture of the subject at one place. Another point worthy of note is that the earlier works do not contain an elaborate glossary of required technical terms to facilitate not only the common readers but also to the researchers to comprehend the contents fairly well. Therefore, the entire material on Jaina art and architecture has been collected and collated in a chronological order, or in a thematic order wherever necessary, in one volume.
This encyclopaedic work is divided into three parts - architecture, sculpture and iconography, and painting and treats the entire contents into 23 chapters and 12 appendices.
Part I is on architecture and consists of six chapters dealing virtually with all types of secular and religious buildings the Jainas have either raised out of love and devotion to their faith or made reference to them in their literature.
Chapter I is introductory and aims at giving a brief outline of architectural development of Jaina monuments during the period under review. It also deals with various other aspects which would hopefully prove to be useful for the comprehension of Jaina edifices.
Chapter II gives a detailed account of different types of secular and religious buildings that are described in the Jaina canonical texts. We know a lot about the religious buildings but this chapter is significant because it throws welcome light on the secular buildings.
Chapter III discusses the ruined Jaina stupa of Mathura which is the lone Jaina stupa so far known to us in concrete form. Here, an attempt has been made to restore the past glory of this stūpa by piecing together all the evidences for the mode of its construction and decoration and also by making a comparative study of the Jaina stupa with its Buddhist counterpart. A special attention has been rendered to its railing which is fully decorated with varieties of full-blown lotus flowers on account of which it has been rightly called Padmavaravedikā, a name given to this type of railing in the Jaina texts only.
Chapter IV gives a state-wise description of rock-cut Jaina caves excavated throughout the country both in the cut-in and cut-out forms as we find with regard to Brahmanical excavations. The history of Jaina cave architecture begins with the dwelling caves at Rajgir in the third century B.C. and it continues in this form at Udayagiri-Khandagiri, Pabhosa and Junagadh. But when it reaches the soil of the Deccan and South India it takes the form of shrines which were produced at Ankai-Tankai even as late as the twelfth century A.D. All these Jaina caves have been described in their entirety so that one can make an estimate of Jaina share of rock-cut architecture which is second only to the Buddhist.
Chapters V and VI deal with structural Jaina temples of North and South India respectively in the same pattern as we notice in case of rock-cut architecture. The structural temples which constitute a major part of
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