________________
168
RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
of the Saka-Kuşāņa period and cut out of the back of an ancient nude Jina image, as also a small statue with a like inscription and carved out of the back of a sculptured panel with a very archaic record on the other side, prove, in the opinion of V. Smith, that "the Jainas of Indo-Scythian period at Mathurā used for their sculptures materials from an older temple."
Remains of Jaina temples of the Gupta Age (4th to 7th century A.D.), also known as the Classical Age of Indian art and literature have been discovered at Mathurā, Ahicchatrā, Kahāun and Deogarh in the north, and of the contemporaneous Cālukyan age at Aihole, Anjanerī, Pattadakkal and Śravanabelgola in the south. From the 9th century on, structural architecture began to replace fast the rock-hewn type and it made a rapid stride and remarkable development under the Candellas of Jejakabhukti (Bundelakhanda), the Solankis of Gujarat and the Hoysalas of Karnataka.
The most noteworthy specimens of the Candella art are represented by the Jaina group of six temples at Khajuraho built in the 10th and 11th centuries A.D. As Dr. Klaus Fisher observes, "In beauty of outline and richness of carving, these temples are unsurpassed by any kindred group of monuments in India...... The parallel friezes are elaborated by excellent statuary in the typical full developed Khajurāho style of sculptre. Rows of figures without architectural interruptions dominate the entire scheme being continuous right round the structure... The recessed ceiling of the portico (in the Pārasanātha temple) is a masterpiece of carving, from the centre of which hangs a pendant decorated with chain and floral patterns and terminating in a pair of interwined flying human figures.... The apsaras figures on the outer walls of the sanctum are masterpieces of sculpture and display superb grace in their modelling. Specially noteworthy are the figures on the northern side exhibiting a woman fondling a child, a woman writing letter, a little figure extracting a thorn from a woman's foot and a woman at her
