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CHAPTER 200
NORTH INDIA
This was an era of stylistic intermixure as can be seen in the contemporary temple-architecture. In the Cāhamāna territory even as far as Haryana the governing sculptural tradition was of the Gurjara origin, whereas in the Ganga-Yamunā valley it was the Cedi-Candella art-idiom. Some limited impact of the Paramāra art-form too can be marked in lower Rajasthan in the border areas. Some of the Gahadavāla sculptures, however, retain a few features of the earlier art-tradition of the Ganga-Yamunā vatley, but most of the later images of Madhyadeśa are rigid and less attractive.
The Jaina art of this age, like the contemporary Brāhmaṇical sculpture, does not seem to have an independent status. It was closely associated with the temple-architecture, and as such the sculptural representation of any kind, despite its ritualistic or iconographic identity, was also aimed to contribute to the structural harmony by merging with the organic mass of the temple-fabric. The Jaina temple, which symbolized the universe presided over by the Jina, has in its accessory sculptures the representatives of the diverse spheres and aspects of the universe. The temple was thus to serve as the fountainhead of bliss, embodiment of supreme virtue and a monument of glory with its structural and sculptural magnificence and grand ceremonials. The idea is beautifully reflected in the following verses of Muni Sakalacandra's Drştāstakastotra:
drstań Jinendra-bhavana bhava-täpa-häri bhavyātmanām vibhava-sambhava-bhūri-hetu / dugdhābdhi-phena-dhavalojvala-küta-kotinaddha-dhvaja-prakara-rāji-virājamānam // 111 drstar Jinendra-bhavanar bhuvanaika-lakşmidhämarddhivardhita-mahāmuni-sevyamānam / vidyādharāmara-badhūjana-yukta-divyapuspāñjali-prakara-sobhita-bhūmi-bhāgam // 2 // drstaṁ Jinendra-bhavanaṁ bhavanādivāsavikhyāta-nāka-ganikā-gaña-giyamānam / näna-mani-pracaya-bhâsura-raśmi-jālavyålid ha-nirmala-viśāla-gavākşajälam // 3 // drstaṁ Jinendra-bhavanaṁ sura-siddha-yakşagandharva-kinnara-karärpita-veņu-vīņā- / sangita-misrita-namaskrta-dhära-nadair apüritămbara-taloru-dig-antarālam // 4 // drstari mayadya maņi-kāñcana-citratungasirhåsanādi-Jina-bimba-vibhuti-yuktam
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