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Jaina Temple Architecture : South India
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inspiration from Western India where it is most commonly represented.
Each porch of the rangamandapa contains a beautiful ceiling of the cusped design. It shows sixteen, again sixteen- and eight-foils of kolas in three concentric circles. The last one of these is also made pointed.
TAMIL NADU Jainism probably entered the land of Tamil Nadu through Karnataka shortly after Bhadrabahu, the head of the Jainasangha, migrated from north to the south when a terrible famine occurred in Magadha (Bihar) in the 3rd century B.C., and settled at Śravanabelagola (Karnataka). This may be surmised from some stone beds carved in the rock shelters bearing polish that resembles the one appearing on the Mauryan pillars. Even the major part of Sangam literature (c. B.C. 500 - A.D. 500 ) has been written by the Jainas. The author of the Silappadikäram, the famous epic in Tamil, was also a Jaina. Kundakundäcarya has been revered immediately after Mahavira and Gautam and is the first among the southern Jaina genealogies to have been mentioned in the Tamil literature.
During the times of the Pallavas of Kāñci Jainism was in a very flourishing state. The Jaina Acarya Vajranandin even enjoyed the patronage of the Pallava king Simhavarman (c. A.D. 535-580). It was this Vajranandin who founded the Jaina Drāvidasargha in Tamil Nadu. Mahendravarman I (C. A.D. 580-630) was a Jaina during the greater part of his life. The presence of Jainism at this time is also evident from a Jaina cave at Vilappakkam. Very little is known of Jainism after Mahendra, but as we come to the time of Rājasimha (A.D. 700-728), we find a concrete example of Jaina temple built in honour of Candraprabha at Tirupparuttikunram.
It is hard to say what happened to Jainism in Tamil Nadu after the Pallavas as no example of Jaina temple is known from the Cola period. The main reason is that the Cola rulers, who succeeded the Pallavas, were staunch Saiva and hence there was little scope
for Jainism in the Cola empire. From this one should not, however, conclude that Jainism was completely wiped out since a Jaina temple to Candraprabha was founded at Vijayamangalam at this time. TIRUPPARUTTIKUNRAM
Candraprabha Temple - This is the earliest structural Jaina temple of the Pallava period. It is located at Tirupparuttikunram called Jina Kāñci in the Chingleput district of Tamil Nadu. The temple is much weather-worn and is plastered and whitewashed, but enough remains to adduce it to the time of the Pallavas of Kāñci.
It consists of a two-storeyed (dvitala) square sanctum (vimana) and an ardhamandapa (porch), and is laid out in a straight-edged line. The whole of the lower storey is built of stone. The temple rests on a moulded adhisthana of which only the three-faceted kumuda and a projecting fillet are visible. The wall of the lower storey (äditala), on each side, is divided into five bays by plain pilasters carrying rampant vyalas at the base of the corner pilasters. The central bay has two pilasters and the end bays have three pilasters each, while the spaces in between them are filled with shallow niches. The lower storey has been completely filled up and concealed, probably when the temple crumbled down and its restoration had to be carried out. It is therefore not impossible if the temple originally had an ambulatory around the sanctum, making it a sāndhāravimāna, because the functioning structure now is in the upper storey which was added during the Vijayanagara period.
The upper storey with its square sikhara and circular stupi is built of bricks and lime mortar. Its walls on each side carry three plain recesses, each formed by a pair of pilasters, and are surmounted by a hära of karna-kutas and śālā-Sikharas sheltering stucco figures of Jinas etc. The grīvā of the sikhara carries lion figures on the corners and sculptured niches in the cardinal points. On the front side of the upper storey is a pillared pavilion covered by a stone ceiling.
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