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Post-Mahavira Period and the Contribution of Jainism
Reference may also be made to the five groups of Jaina images cut in relief on the face of the steep cliff below the fort of Gwalior; they were executed between AD 1440 and 1473.91 Some of these images are colossal; one of them is 57 feet high.32
Architecture
394
In the field of architecture the contribution of Jainism has been truly memorable. Jainism did not create a separate architecture. It drew from and always depended on Hindu architecture. In the construction of temples the Jainas followed the structural pattern of the Hindus. The Jainas adopted the local building traditions for their edifices.396 The Hindu and the Jaina temples at Khajuraho are alike. But the Jaina temples were not exact carbon copies of the Hindu temples; they differed from them in some respects because the theistic requirements of Jainism are somewhat different from those of Hinduism. For instance, departure from the style of Hindu. architecture can be seen in some Jaina temples of Karnataka.
The Jainas had a passion for religious-building, and through the ages, they built numerous temples, some of which can be called the pride of India. The Jainas chose beautiful sites for the construction of such edifices. It was
390. HOFA, p. 268.
391.
Ibid.
395
392. Ibid.
393. AJAA, p. 319; E.B. Havell, The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India, 1915, p. 175. 394. Ibid., p. 319.
395.
H. Zimmer, op. cit., p. 134; E.B. Havell, oc. cit., pp. 65-6.
E.B. Havell, op. cit., p. 175; AJAA, pp. 319-20.
397. Percy Brown, Indian Architecture, Buddhist and Hindu, 2nd edn., p. 136; HOFA, p. 23; HIEA, pp. 245-6.
398. AJAA, pp. 319-20.
399. IGI, II, p. 170.
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