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LITERATURE AND ART OF THE JAINS
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stage of its development is represented by cave-temples. The most ancient temples are those in Bihar, dated fourth-second centuries B.C. and in Orissa and Gujarat, dated second century A.D. The upper arches of these big and deep caves support the columns (usually smooth). At some places the outside wall is decorated with simple reliefs portraying the figure of nude Tirthankars and the branch of the holy tree 'Bo'.
There are many cave-monasteries especially in Orissa, in the Udaygiri and Khandagiri mountains. Images of other ancient religious symbols, such as multi-headed serpents, tridents, swastika, women pouring water from the pitcher (apparently this symbol is connected with the cult of water) are also seen in those monasteries. One also comes across multi-figure compositions on friezes, portraying scenes from Jain legends.13
The presence of a great number of cave-temples and cavemonasteries in Jainism and Buddhism testifies to the great antiquity of traditions, adopted or probably preserved by these religions. The Aryan cults could not have been connected from time immemorial with cave-prayer-halls, owing to the climatic conditions of those places, where those cults had formed and developed. In India, caves happen to be beautiful shelters from heat and rain, and even the extremely laborious process of carving artistic caves in the rocks could not prevent them from creating those shelters.
Can this not be the reason for not coming across temple structures in the ruins of the cities of the Indus Valley? It is not possible that the prayer services were directed by monks, living in the mountains and sheltering themselves from the sun and the rains in the caves? Coming to the city, they possibly gave sermons directly in the houses of their followers, as the Jain Acharyas often do in present day India.
The Jains also erected stupas, cylindrical structures with arched tops, standing on quadratic platform. The Jain stupas are preserved on plates (beginning of our era) on which images of Jeenas were carved. Judging from these plates, one can see that the foundation of the stupas were ornamented with reliefs, columns were erected along the sides of the stupas and sculptural figures were planted."
13. A. K. Coomaraswamy, History of Indian and Indonesian Art, p. 36. 14. Ibid., p. 72.
