Encyclopaedia of Jaina Studies Vol 01 Jaina Art and Architecture

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

Page 167

Jaina Temple Architecture: North India
worship there. But except for two small Jaina temples located very close to each other on an independent hillock, nothing Jaina is available there. Of these two Jaina temples one has completely gone and the other is in a very ruinous condition. Its sanctum (Pl. 53) alone has survived. The temple is built of sandstone and faces north.
From the remains of a few foundation layers it appears that originally it had a porch in the front. About seven feet high the sanctum is square on plan and is made up of hewn blocks of rectangular ashlars. Its cubical wall has no ratha-projections. In elevation it shows five divisions. The pitha consists of two bhitta courses. The vedībandha has four courses of khura, kumbha decorated with crude half diamonds, kalasa, and kapota adorned with caitya-gavākṣa pattern. The jangha is plain; the small cornice is ribbed. The sikhara is pyramidal made up of three receding tiers of inverted cyma recta like mouldings bearing an ornament consisting of rosette-marked half diamond between two half caitya-gavaksas. At present, the upper tier and the crowning members have gone. The single-sakha door is sharply relieved with foliate scrolls. Its sill shows a square projection carved with an inverted crescent in the centre and a kirttimukha spewing creepers on its either side. At the base of the jamb stands a female carrying water pot. The door-lintel continues the decoration of the Sakha but is interrupted in the centre by the tutelary image of Jina sitting in meditative
posture.
The interior shows four pilasters at the four corners and a ceiling carried by them on a square frame of plain architraves. Each of the four pilasters has a square moulded base of khura, kumbha and kalasa; their shaft is plain; and the capital consists of cushion-shaped abacus and roll-brackets. The ceiling is made by cutting off the corners comprising three tiers of nine stones, the central stone being carved with a full-blown crude lotus flower with two rows of petals. In the south wall is a small emptied niche. The temple seems to have
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been built in honour of Jaina goddess Ambika whose mutilated image may still be seen outside the sanctum there.
The temple has been bewildering scholars for its date simply because it bears certain features such as pyramidal roof etc. which suggest it a date some where in the 7th-8th century A.D., but from the presence of such features as crude half diamond on the kumbha of the pitha, a heavy ribbed eave-cornice between the walls and sikhara, and the projecting kirttimukhas on the doorsill it appears that it was built around A.D. 1000. TARANGA
Taranga is a sacred hill of the Jainas lying three miles away from Taranga Railway Station in Mehsana district of Gujarat. Its holy character is evident from the fact that a large number of Jaina monks are known to have performed penance there. During the historical period the site first came into possession of the Buddhists who under the patronage of Pratihāra Vatsarāja built a shrine to goddess Tara there. Subsequently, the site was occupied by the Digambaras who still hold possession of the Sambhavanatha temple standing behind the famous Ajitanätha temple built by the Caulukya king Kumarapala (c. A.D. 1143-72).
Sambhavanatha Temple This Digambara Jaina temple (Pl. 54) at Taranga is situated in another compound behind the famous Ajitanatha temple of the Śvetämbara sect and is older than the latter. It consists of a sanctum, güdhamandapa and mukhamandapa and faces east.
The sanctum is tri-anga on plan consisting of bhadra, pratiratha and karna, the bhadra being the widest, the karna half the size of the bhadra and the pratiratha half that of the karna. The frontal pratiratha has been turned into a buffer wall to separate the sanctum from the gudhamandapa. In elevation it shows pitha, vedībandha, jangha, varaṇḍikä and sikhara. The pitha, of which the bhitta is now imbedded in the floor, consists of a jaḍyakumbha decorated with lotus leaves, karnikā, antarapatta adorned with kuñjarākṣas, chadyaki