Jaina Shrines In India

Author(s): O P Tandon
Publisher: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Vovernment of India

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Dispersal of Shrines
In the period of Gahadavalas, bricks temple was commissioned at the instance had been quite popular in the construction of Raja Harsukh Rai at Dharampura in of new shrines. This explains the reason Delhi in 1800 A.D. and the construction why many of these temples are not in situ. was completed in the late nineteenth Most of the Jaina temple and others have century. sadly suffered the ravages of time. How
Delhi, which possesses modern Jaina ever, the miniature shrines preserved till
temples, had been once a centre of Jaina to-day, present a very good idea of the forms of Jaina temples in this region. There
worship during the Chahamana rule. Traces are two such deva-kuliras in the Allahabad
of Jaina temples, scattered pieces of pillars
and pilasters in some cases bearing Jina museum. These are ascribed to roth-irth
figures, have been found in the vicinity of centuries. Such shrines were in all pro
the old Quwwat-ul-Islam mosque in bability established to have served as the
Mehrauli. The temple has been so very model for new constructions of temple.
dilapidated that except architectural Besides these, the sculptural remains show
remnants and broken sculptural friezes of that the temples were built at Hastinapur,
Jinas, no construction stands intact. Similar Varanasi, Ayodhya, Ahichchhatra, Mathura,
traces of Jaina establishment have been Kanyakubja and Sravasti, etc. Structural
noticed at Hansi which belongs to the same similarties with the small deva-kulikas have
period. These pieces resemble the remains been observed in the temples, such as, Adi
found in the Bikaner area. Medieval Jaina nåtha temple at Ayodhya (C. 18th century)
temples have also been found in the interior considered to be the holiest Jaina pilgrimage centre; Pärsvanātha temple at Tirlokpur in
of the Kangra hills. district Barabanki (C. 18th century); From North India, the centre of Jaina Pärśvanātha Temple at his birthplace at activities successively shifted to the western Bhelupura in Varanasi, the latter is dated and central parts of India. Contributions to the period of Akbar. There are also of the Deccan and far south were not less shrines of late Mughal period at Agra, significant as we find some of the most Sauripura and Firozabad. The Lal-mandir elegant Jaina monuments that thrived of in Delhi was built in 1656 A.D. Another late in those regions.