Some Early Jaina Temples in Western India

Author(s): M A Dhaky
Publisher: Z_Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_Mahotsav_Granth_Part_1_012002.pdf and Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_

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SOME EARLY JAINA TEMPLES IN WESTERN INDIA : 303
India. This circumscribed attitude made, sometimes, compromise difficult with the societies wherein its followers lived, particularly in the mediaeval epoch.
The sapience of Svetāmbara Jainism, guided by the spirit of syädväda (relativity), on the other hand, never allowed itself to be closeted in a totalitarian, chauvinistic ideology. Haribhadrasūri, as early as in the eighth century, was an open-minded thinker, a great conciliator, who harmonized different sophistical view-points and reduced them to the same common denominators, which, in their ultimate analysis showed that, after all, there existed no real conflict between different systems of thinking, approaches differed though, and were, on some score, bound to differ. Hemacandra, a great heir to this great tradition, did not hesitate to visit the temple of Somanātha and offer a magnificent hymn to Siva Mahādeva. That explains everything: why the royalty in Western India possessed catholicity of religious taste and outlook and were so favourable to Jainism; how Jainas, though never very numerous, could build numberless temples; and why the vastuśästras of Western India held Jaina divinities on a high level of recognition. Compare this with the parochial attitude of Samarängana Sūtradhära, otherwise a great work on architecture and iconography, from Central India. Its complete silence over Jaina iconography and architecture will be found no more intriguing if its injunction to outplace the temples of heretical sects (päkhandi) which mainly includes Jaina (since, besides the Brahmanists, the Jainas formed the major group of temple builders in Central India of those days), is given due regard. The distaste of the Paramāra emperor Bhojadeva of Dhārā for Jainism is known to us through the anecdotes of Dhanapāla, a Jaina poet at the Mālava court. This unsympathetic attitude towards Jainism had, in general, no place in Western India. The persuasive power of the Svetāmbara Jainism and the tactfulness of its adherents performed some miracles in the days of Muslim domination as well. Jinadattasūri was respected at the Tughlak court, and Samarāśā could obtain permission from Sultan Gyasuddin of Delhi to renovate the great temple of Adinātha on Satruñjaya : similarly, in early sixteenth century, Karmāśā obtained permission for renovating the same fane from the ruling sultan of Ahmedabad. Still later, Hiravijayasuri and Jainacandra were honoured at the Mughal court: they even received farmans from the Mughal Emperor Akbar promulgating non-violence for certain periods in the Empire. Akbar, and Jehangir as well, permitted Jainas to build the shrines. That was the