Jain Journal 1970 01

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 60

170
JAIN JOURNAL
car, of the cosmic city4. While these Indian, Indo-Chinese and Indonesian creations were inspired by characteristically South-east Asian Holy Scriptures, there exist, last not least, whole buildings or building parts based upon archetypes common to both Western and Eastern symbolical thinking : reflecting the image of heaven. From the Gandhara period up to present day Indian craftsmen invented numerous devices to materialize by stone and brick structures the idea of heaven's vault and by stone or wood sculptures the forms of heavenly beingspresiding over the celestial space and ruling the terrestrial sphere. Technically and artistically there occur three main solutions to cover square rooms and to evoke the image of heaven : simply horizontally thrown stone beams or slabs with symbolical paintings or relief sculptures ; a cavity formed by diminishing squares with or without additional decoration ; a dome-like structure of overlapping stonecircles enriched by allegorical figures. The art of temple building had a history of one millennium, when the temple city of Ranakpur · was established in the forest-scenery of the Aravalli mountains (fig. 1) in V.S. 1489 (=1432-33 A.D.) by order of Dharanaka and constructed under supervision of Dipa. Therefore we find in the ceilings of icon-niches, corridors and assembly halls traditions of various regional styles, inconographic systems and aesthetic concepts. As far as
nakpur represents a rare, unless the only, specimen of an architectural unit containing three different artistic solutions for the identical symbolical theme : the heaven.
I can
see R
According to common human, physio-psychological or aesthetic experiences we react like our ancestors, like the creators of Mediaeval Indian temples, and recognise the firmament—the sphere during bright daytime as well as the starry sky-quite naturally by any dome-like vault covering a square or a circular room?. Among the two technical
R. Heine-Geldern, Weltbild und Bauform in Sudost-Asien, Wiener Beitrage zur Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte Asiens 4, 1928/29. R. Guenon, La montagne et le caverne, Etudes Traditionnelles 43, 1938. S. Kramrisch, The Hindu Temple, Calcutta, 1946. H.G.Q. Wales, The Mountain of God, London, 1953. F.D.K. Bosch, The Golden Germ, 's-Gravenhage, 1960. W. Muller,
Die heilige Stadt, Stuttgart, 1961. 5 K. Lehmann, The dome of Heaven, Art Bulletin 27, 1945. A.C. Soper, The
dome of Heaven in Asia, Art Bulletin 29, 1947. 6 A. K. Coomaraswamy, Indian Architectural Terms, JAOS 48, 1928, 374
Banerji, l.c. 1961-64, 41 n. 1. 7 A. K. Coomaraswamy, Symbolism of the Dome, IHQ 14, 1938. E.B.
Smith, The Dome, a Study in the History of Ideas, Princeton, N.J., 1950. L. Hautecoeur, Mystique et architecture, symbolisme du cercle et de la coupole, Paris, 1954.