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JAIN JOURNAL
James Fergusson/ History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, Vol II/
Munshiram Manoharlal/Delhi/1967 pp. 71-73.
The first peculiarity that strikes one as distinguishing the Jaina architecture of the south from that of the north, is the division of the southern temples into two classes, called Bastis and Bettas.1 The former are temples in the usual acceptance of the word, as understood in the
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Jaina Bastis at Soavana Belgola
north, and, as there, always containing an image of one of the twentyfour Tirthankaras, which is the object there worshipped. The latter are unknown in the north ; and are courtyards usually on a hill or rising ground, open to the sky and containing images, not of a Tirthankara, but of Gomata or Gomatesvara so called, though he is not known to the
1 Basti, properly “Basadi", is a Jaina monastery or temple ; it is the Kannada
form of the Sanskrit “Vasati" having the same meaning ; Vasahikā is applied to buildings including monastery and temple. --Buhler, 'Ueber das Leben des Hemacandra', p. 57. 'Betta', in Kannada, means a hill.
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