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JAINA ANTIQUARY.
(Vol. I
oelassification, for our purposes. “The three most clearly differentiated types are,” according to him, " the Northern marked by the curvilinear sikhara the Southern, with a terraced pyramidal tower, of which only the dome is called the sikhara and the Central, combining both types with peculiarities of its own." These three types are thus designated in the Silpa-śastras :
A. Nāgra-mainly, North of the Vindhyas. B. Vêsara-Western India, the Deocan and Mysore.
C. Drāvida, Madras Presidency and North Ceylon.1 It is to be understood that these are the most predominent characteristics of each area, but not the monopoly of any particular zone. For instance, in a Ratta inscription of Saundatti that king Rājā “ caused to be erected at Kalpôle a temple of Jina, wonderful to be heheld, the diadem of the earth, having three pinnacles (sikharas) unequalled so that Brahma, Vishnu and Siva were charmed with it;" he also built "a place of retreat for the bigh-minded devotees of the god Santinatha (Jina) adorned with golden pinnacles and arched portals, fashioned like a seamonster, and pillars of honour, etc."9
A more peculiar type of Jaina temples is found in South Kanara, below the ghats on the West Coast. Apart from the Betta or shrines consisting of an open court.yard surrounded with cloister round about the colossi, are the temples of Mudbidrê, belonging mostly to the time of Vijayanagar Kings, with their sloping roofs of flat over-lapping slabs, and a peculiar type of stonescreen enclosing the sides, recalling a Buddhist railing--resemble Himalayan structures, rather than anything else more familiar in India. The
1. Cf, Ibid., pp. 106-7. 2. Fleet, Ratta Inscriptions, JBBRAS X, p. 235. 3. Cf, Coomaraswamy, op. cit.. pp. 118-19; Fergusson, op. cit., p. 75 f. This
ressmblance with Nepalese or Himalayan architecture is generally explained by saying that "similar conditions produced similar structures"; but those who say this forget or are unaware of the existence of a number of Nepalese jogis at Kadri (Mangalore) from unknown times, in the vicinity of whose Matha are a number of tombs said to be those of GorakhNath and his followers from the Himalays. If this fact does not wholly explain, it certainly lends support to the bypothesis of actual Northern influence,
