Jain Journal 1974 04

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

Page 43

APRIL, 1974
181
The other most important place of pilgrimage in the west was Mount bu, on the borders of Rajputana. Five temples, wholly of white marble, are built there, which for minute delicacy of carving and beauty stand almost unrivalled. It is a beautiful spot, 'rising from the desert as abruptly as an island from the ocean', and presenting on almost every side inaccessible scarps 5,000 ft. or 6,000 ft. high. "The summit can only be approached by ravines that cut into its sides.' This makes it all the more remarkable that the white marble should have been conveyed there, for no quarries are to be found within three hundred miles of the spot, and the carrying work must have involved immense expenses.
The highest point of the Bengal range of hills was also selected by the Jaina as a sacred spot. "No less than nineteen of their twenty-four Tirthakara are said to have died and been buried there, among others Parasnath, the last but one, and he consequently gave the hill the name it now bears... Before, however, Jainism became politically important, the centre of power had gravitated towards the west. Were it not for this, there seems little doubt but that Parasnath would have been more important in their eyes than Palitana and Girnar.943
Other temples in North Jaina style are found at Girnar, Gwalior, and Khajuraho ; but in Southern India they are divided into two classes, called Basti and Bettu. The former are temples containing an image of one of the twenty-four Tirthakara ; but the latter are not temples in the ordinary sense of the word, but courtyards open to the sky, containing images, not of a Tirthakara, but of one Gomata, who is unknown to the Northern Jaina. These kinds of temples are found at Sravana Belgula, Moodbidri, and Gurusaukerry.44
the Maitland Prize Essay for 1897. From Some Minor Religious Sects in India, pages 39-68.
48 Fergusson, History of Architecture, vol. iii, bk. ii, pp. 240-241. 44 Ibid., p. 265 ff.
o tempo History of Architecture, vol.iti, bk. tis, p. 240-241.