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 : 309
Rajasthan33, and shrines at Roda in Northern Gujarat and their relatives in lower Rajasthan, represent two related but independent expressions of temple architecture. Which one of the two styles shall we call Pratihāra? Again, the oldest temples at Citrakūta and Mahānāla (Menal) are closely kindred to the temples of the Osia variety, with a few features and nuances that also connect the temples at Roda. Medopāța, at this time and for several centuries afterwards, seems to be under the hegemony of the Guhilas, and not, for that matter, the Pratihāras. Let us follow the next case. The Paramāras of Arbudamandala (Abu), Bhillamāla, and Jābālipura were ultimately of Mālava extraction. But the styles of architecture that prevailed in the tenth and eleventh centuries in the territories ruled by them were related to those that were current in Medapāța and Gujarat, and not the one that was followed in the Malava province under the aegis of the Paramāras of Dhārā. Incidentally, several different dynasties governed over specific portions of Gujarat; while Medapāța, as already stated, was ruled by the Guhilas. In Medapāța itself two styles flourished, one akin to Osian as already stated, the other one, in lower territory, nursed a style which aligns with Arbuda and Gujarat. Take, again, the case of temples at Kirāțakūpa (Kiradu). Who the authors of these temples were, is still not certain. Agreed, Cāhamānas as well as the Paramāras occupied this city in the latter half of twelfth century; but the temples in question were already in existence there, the latest being older by three generations than the known facts of history. Kirāțakūpa temples suggest stylistic affiliations with both upper Rajasthan as well as lower Rajasthan, even Gujarat. What dynastic label shall we attach to them? The examples can be multiplied to demonstrate the futility of the exclusive dependence on dynastic appellations. Instead, a regional classification regulated by a chronological yardstick in relation to historical facts must prove a much more versatile, precise instrument of reckoning.
This implies, radically, new approaches to the old problems; alteration of methods, but also of interpretation by which to arrive at more comprehensive, more sensitive, more valid and perhaps more convincing solutions.
Western India has figured so often in our discussions. The
33 The details are mentioned in my paper Old Temple at Lamba and
Kåmeśvara temple at Auwa to appear in the Journal of Asiatic Society', Calcutta.