Jain Journal 1972 04

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

Page 75

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JAIN JOURNAL
Ajanta and Ellora we find but few Jaina caves being built. As Smith says, "the varying practical requiements of the cult of each religion, of course, had an effect on the nature of the buildings required for particular purposes." Hence the paucity of Jaina caves in later times as compared with either Buddhists or Brahmanical ones, is a strong commentary upon those who adversely reflect upon the ascetic nature of the Jaina religion. The importance attached to the lay community as well as the active part played in worldly life by the Jaina monks, must largely account for the fact that although like the Buddhists the Jainas had a monastic organisation it never attained power like that of the Buddhist order. According to Burgess, as against 720 Buddhist and 160 Brahmanical we have only 35 Jaina cave-temples. The earliest of these belong to the 5th or 6th century A.D. and the latest perhaps to the 12th.
By far the most interesting caves of the Jainas from the artistic point of view, are the groups called the Indrasabha and Jagannath sabha at Ellora. They constitute a maze of excavations leading from one into another. Percy Brown says, "No other temple at Ellora is so complete in its arrangements or so finished in its workmanship as the upper storey of Indrasabha, all the large sunk panels between pilasters on every wall being filled with figure subjects, while the pillars, admirably spaced, and on occasion joined by dwarf walls, are moulded, fluted and faceted, as in no other instance."
Almost adjoining to the Indrasabha is the Jagannath sabha, similar in general plan but smaller in size. Its walls are also recessed for figure sculpture, and the pillars are richly carved in the style in which the Jaina artist excels. As Burgess says, "The architects, who excavated the two Sabhas at Ellora, deserve a prominent place among those, who regardless of all utilitarian considerations, sought to convert the living rock into quasi-eternal temples in honour of their gods."
In fact, in India rock-hewn architecture reached its highest development in the region of the Western Ghats. The caves of Ajanta are the first, but "though the series at Ellora commenced nearly at the time when the excavation at Ajanta ceased, immense interest is added by the introduction of temples belonging to the Hindu and Jaina religions, affording a varied picture of the mythology of India during the period of its greatest vigour, such as is nowhere else to be found." Ellora served as a veritable meeting place of Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism and perhaps is the most suitable place for a comparative study of the art developed by them.