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Chapter IX ART AND ARCHITECTURE
The Jainas have been amongst the foremost in contributing to the cultural heritage of India. They have enriched the country's art treasure with numerous and diverse specimens of art and architecture, not a few of which are unique and vie with the best in their grandeur and artistic merit.
It may be noted at the outset that the Jaina art has been essentially religious, and, as with everything else in life, it would appear that the Jainas have carried their spirit of acute analysis and even asceticism into the sphere of art and architecture, so much so that in the conventional Jaina art the ethical object seems to predominate, and one may sometimes find in it a lack of the purely aesthetic element conducive to its own growth.
There are minute details, for instance, in texts like Mānasāra, which show that there was a regular system of sculpture and architecture to which the workers in these arts were expected to conform strictly. But, the same thing holds true of the Buddhist and Brāhmaṇical arts, which were equally religious and required adherence to prescribed rules and conventions. If there was any difference, it was only of degree, and the Jaina art, with all its peculiarities and distinctive features, was not at any time very different from, or independent of, the contemporary art trends. Moreover, even religion is emotional to
