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CHAPTER 21)
EAST INDIA
hence, that the Jainas might have introduced the design of the four-faced shrine, i.e. a shrine with four entrances in the four directions, in order to suit the needs of their four-faced votive object, the caturmukha.
In a manner this suggestion gains convincing support from the caturmukhas, described above, which with four Tirthankaras on four faces of a cubic block topped by a curvilinear sikhara apparently reproduce each a shrine with four entrances confronting the four figures of the cube installed within a square sanctum-cella. A simple shrine of this design, possibly without the superstructure which probably is an early medieval addition, appears to have been devised by the Jainas for the proper installation of a sarvatobhadrika image at a fairly early date. The design of a four-faced shrine, it has already been observed, seems to have been derived from the idea inherent in pratimā sarvatobhadrikā. The Yugādiśvara temple at Ranakpur (Rajasthan) of the fifteenth century may be recognized to be the most elaborate expression of the early four-entranced shrines of the Jainas.
In the monolithic sarvatobhadrikā shrines it is possible to recognize a new expression of the simple four-faced shrines of the early phase. This new expression consists in the provision of a superstructure apparently supported on the cubical votive object. This superstructure conforms to the prevailing norm of north-Indian temple-architecture and consists of a curvilinear sikhara with amalaka and crowning finial. The four-faced shrine with a Nāgara śikhara as superstructure adds a new dimension to Indian architecture. Among the Buddhists the idea of Jaina sarvatobhadrikā finds expression in two votive temples, one in stone from Dinajpur and the other in bronze (plate 160A) from Jhewari (Chittagong District), both in Bangladesh. Each of these is in the form of a shrine surmounted by a sikhara, the cubical block in the lower section having four figures in niches (the niches in the bronze specimen are now empty) on four faces. These votive offerings of Buddhist affiliation, there is hardly any doubt, echo the motif of the Jaina sarvatobhadrikā and reproduce the design of a four-entranced shrinc capped by a śikhara.
That this new expression in Indian architecture gained popularity in eastern India is evident from the not too infrequent representations of the type with certain elaborations in east-Indian sculptures and in manuscript-paintings in the context of some famous shrines of this territory. The type, though apparently derived from the idea of the Jaina sarvatobhadrika, is known to have extended to monuments beyond the confines of that creed. No structural
[See below, chapter 28.-Editor.)
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