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RELIGION & CULTURE OF THE JAINS
where, as Longhurst says, “Unlike the Hindus, the Jainas almost invariably selected a picturesque site for their temples, valuing rightly the effect of environment on architecture.” The hill originally occupied by them, south of the great Pampapati temple, is significantly called the Hema-kūtam, or the 'golden peak' There is also not a more picturesque spot in the vicinity than that chosen and occupied by the Jains at Śravanabelgola, their chief centre in the south. Similarly, Mudabidri, their great stronghold in South Kanara, is marked by natural beauty and convenience and shows how wise the Jainas were in choosing the site of their establishments. The same holds true about their important holy places elsewhere, such as Mt. Pārasnātha (Sammedasikhara), Rajgir, Pawapur, Mandargiri, Khandagiri, Udayagiri, Sonagir, Deogarh, Abu and Girnar, The Jainas did not reflect the theoretical side of the subject either. Works like Vāstu-sāra written by Thakkar Pheru, a Jaina engineer of Delhi, about 1315 A.D. enumerate twentyfive different kinds of temple buildings, and must have served as practical handbooks for the architects of Jaina temples during the medieval period. The Paintings In the realm of painting, specimens bearing Jaina influence are to be seen in the Singhanpur and Jogimara caves of Madhya Pradesh. Traces of old fresco painting are visible in a Jaina cave (Rānī-gumphā) near Bhuvaneshwar (Orissa), in the Tarapur caves and in one of the Jaina caves at Ellora, but the more notable of the early examples exist in the Jaina caves at Kanchipura, Sittannavasala and Tirumalai. They are akin in style and technique to the Ajanta and Bagh frescoes.
Those of Sittannavasala are assigned to the beginning of the 7th century A.D., and the Tirumalai ones to the 11th century, but the latter contain traces of still older paintings covered up
