Encyclopaedia of Jaina Studies Vol 01 Jaina Art and Architecture

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

Page 23

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
The term architecture called Västuvidyā (Prakrit Vatthuvijja) in Indian tradition means the art and science of building. This connotation applies only to the visual and material aspect of the building and not to the conceptual one, though it is for the latter that the Indian buildings, particularly the religious ones, are justly famous. Indeed, the Indian religious buildings, including also the Jaina, are not only a material record of the Indian people but also a cultural record of their thought. belief, cult-worship and material life.
The term "Jaina Architecture" was first used by James Fergusson in his famous treatise entitled History of Indian and Eastern Architecture (London, 1876) in order to distinguish it from the "Buddhist Architecture" as the two are almost contemporaneous and their religious buildings, in many respects, closely resemble to each other. The present nomenclature of "Jaina Architecture" was, however, not adopted in the later works on the subject. This is obvious from the Indian Architecture of Percy Brown (Bombay, 1949) which deals with the whole of ancient Indian architecture under the Buddhist and Hindu periods only, although Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism, the three principal religions of India, flourished side by side and the followers of each of these sects raised buildings in accordance with their own religious requirements, following of course a common code of prescriptions contained in the Vāstusastras and the Dharmaśāstras. It is hard to say why the modern scholars of ancient Indian architecture had not used the above terminology for Jaina buildings after Fergusson. This was due probably to the fact that, except for the enshrined image, there is nothing Jaina, Buddhist or Brahmanical in Indian architecture. But in the latter half of the 20th century some such works as the Studies in Jaina art (Varanasi, 1955), Aspects of Jaina Art and Architecture (Ahmedabad, 1975), Jaina
Art and Architecture (New Delhi, 1975) etc. were published with an exclusively Jaina title, suggesting that the Jainas, like other sects, ought to be recognized by their own name in the field of art and architecture as well. As a result of this it has now become a general trend to call the various traditions by their respective names, so that their contribution to different aspects of Indian history and culture can be properly estimated. In the present Volume of the Encyclopaedia of Jaina Studies also the above title of Jaina Art and Architecture has been upheld.
The architectural data available in the Jaina texts (see next Chapter) and the innumerable Jaina buildings located throughout the country may be divided into two broad groups & secular and religious. The secular buildings consist of dwelling houses which, in old days, were made of wattle-and-daub and hence could not outlive the ravages of time. These were perhaps the houses of the common people raised mostly in the villages. Besides these buildings, there were fortified towns and palatial buildings which were built in somewhat durable material for the elite class. All these buildings are not represented by the actual examples but by the literary references preserved in the Jaina texts. A glimpse of the thatched cottages and the rampart embellished with battlements may, however, be had from the relief carvings found in the Jaina caves at Udayagiri-Khandagiri (Orissa).
The Jaina religious buildings consist of stūpa, rock-cut monastery and shrine, and structural temple. All of these buildings, barring the dwelling caves, enshrine an image of some or the other of the 24 Tirthankaras. Since the Jainas consider the Tirthankaras to be the most exalted Beings on the earth, they worship them alone. This does not, however, mean that the Jainas do not have a pantheon of their own, but the
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