Jain temple

“ The Hindú temple is generally a sort of architectural pasty, a huge collection of ornamental fritters, huddled together with or without keeping; while the “Jain” temple is usually a vast forest of pillars, made to look as unlike one another as possible, by some paltry differences in their petty details. ”

“ In fact, if it had been designed for a site on an open plain, there would have been no necessity to raise it on such a lofty platform. Modern improvers are apt to forget the logic of art.
We went up a side street in the native town on the other side of the mosque to see the Jain temple, which is an interesting and richly decorated small building in the Mogul style of architecture, approached by a doorway in the street and reached by a flight of steps. ”

“ It passed along the north side of the Kallamma and Rangasvami temples, leaving the imperial office enclosure with its lofty walls and watch-towers, and the elephant stables, on the left, skirted the Jain temple and the temple numbered "35" on the plan, and passed along under the rocky hills that bound this plain on the north till it debouched on the main road above mentioned. This street would be the direct approach from the old city of Anegundi to the king's palace.
In A.D. 1430 the king made a grant to a temple far in the south in the Tanjore district. ”

“ There is a Jain temple set deep in the forests on the mountain slopes above Khatmandoo. It is far from the frequented roads, and jealously guarded. No European, I can swear, had ever entered this temple until. last year. It was famed for its statue of the god Vishnu, the Preserver, in which was set an eye consisting of a solitary ruby said to be priceless because of its great size and flawlessness. Last year a certain captain of Gurkhas—I’ll not mention his name—left the town one night and crept through the woods to the ancient temple. ”

“ The chronicle continues by saying that the king constructed in the city of Vijayanagar a magnificent temple in honour of the sage. This temple I take to be the great temple near the river, still in use and known as the temple of Hampi or Hampe, having a small village clustering about it. On the rocks above it, close to a group of more modern Jain temples, is to be seen a small shrine built entirely, roof as well as walls, of stone. Everything about this little relic proves it to be of greater antiquity than any other structure in the whole circuit of the hills, but its exact age is doubtful. ”

“ On the flat table land on the summit of the rock there were several Jain temples, masses of carving within and without. The Sas Bahu is the principal Jain temple, and there is also a Hindu temple on the rock—near the farther end from Man Mandir—the Teli-ka Mandir. This stands in a graveyard, full of carved fragments and upright stones. The elephant bearing the party of British officers passed us as we were exploring the temples. There are131 some ugly barracks, which are very much out of keeping with the historic architecture of the Rock. The old fort has stood many a siege. ”

“ At Ajmere, a really beautiful treasure of architecture is a magnificent carved screen of sandstone arches and five rows of columns behind them, the remains of an otherwise ruined mosque {305} called the Arhai-din-ka-jompra built from the materials of a former Jain temple about the end of the eleventh century. A lake which was made about the same date as the Arhai-din-ka-jompra has an embankment used as a public promenade on which there are white marble pavilions. ”

“ The best Jain temples are often found in very remote spots, and it is suggested that they were built at times when the Jains had to hide in such places to avoid Hindu persecution. And wherever a community of Jain merchants of any size has been settled for a generation or more several fine temples will probably be found. A Jain Bania who has grown rich considers the building of one or more temples to be the best method of expending his money and acquiring religious merit, and some of them spend all their fortune in this manner before their death. ”

“ At their funerals the Jains do not shave the moustaches off as a rule, and they never shave the choti or scalp-lock, which they wear like Hindus. They give a feast to the caste-fellows and distribute money in charity, but do not perform the Hindu shrāddh or offering of sacrificial cakes to the dead. The Agarwāl and Khandelwāl Jains, however, invoke the spirits of their ancestors at weddings. Traces of an old hostility between Jains and Hindus survive in the Hindu saying that one should not take refuge in a Jain temple, even to escape from a mad elephant ”

“ The Jain sect was at first apparently regarded as a schism, and the Jains as heretics or apostates falling away from the pure Hindu worship of Siva.
One seems here, in this great Temple of Madura, to get back to the most ancient type of religion, and one which, after all, allowing for evolution in our280 ideas, seems the most lasting—Nature worship. The Hindus in their pantheon include and embrace everything, at least in their own universe, which is their own country, and to them, truly, “nothing is common or unclean.” Their deities incarnate themselves in all sorts of forms. ”

“ They are tablets erected to the memory of their dead. Here there is another shrine, with three idols. Perhaps the centre one, or patriarch, was Jain, the brother of Buddha, whom they worship, for most of the Chinese are really Buddhists. The priest, who can be known by his shaven head, without pigtail, showed this one to us, and gave me a bundle of the joss-sticks. The joss-house was spoilt by its untidy and neglected state, boards and planks filling up the courtyard, and showing in strange contrast against the costly mountings of the temple. ”

“ As I was driven away, all the edges of the tower glowed like burnished copper in the sunset light.
The twin cradles of the Jaina sect were the States of Mewar and Marwar; and while the former is still independent, the latter forms with Ajmere an isolated British district in the middle of Rajputana. I had now seen at Chitor one of the most famous Jain monuments in the Tower of Fame, and was next to journey to Mount Abu to see there the celebrated Jain temples which are not much later in date.
Mount Abu is a detached hill about fifteen miles on the south-west of the Aravalli Range. ”

“ The statues of the Jinas in the Jain temples, some of which are of enormous size, are still always quite naked; but the Jains themselves have abandoned the practice, the Digambaras being sky-clad at meal-time only, and the Svetāmbaras being always completely clothed. And even among the Digambaras it is only the recluses or Yatis, men devoted to a religious life, who carry out this practice. The Jain laity—the Srāvakas, or disciples—do not adopt it.
The Jain views of life were, in the most important and essential respects, the exact reverse of the Buddhist views. ”

“ It is so narrow that passing along the road in [336] the centre you can almost see down on to the plain immediately below on either hand.
One beautiful bit of antiquity still remains inside the fort in a wonderful Hindu temple, surrounded by a museum of ancient outdoor monuments, stone mummies, Jain idols, and monstrosities of hydra-headed beasts, looking at each other from over a pillar. The temple is very high, square, and narrow—a peculiar kind of formation, and unlike most Hindu temples, which taper towards the top. ”

“ It is a state protected site, with some decorated doorframes inside the temples, and motifs unlike any other in West Bengal. A four-armed idol similar to Kali, a ten-armed goddess and an idol seated on a lotus are all sights to behold. Though locals consider them Hindu idols, in all probability and as believed by many scholars, they are Jain deities. There is also a huge shivalingam inside one of the temple sanctums dating to the eighth or ninth century. ”

“ The great rock is the most noticeable feature, tunnelled out of which is a circular staircase with a gateway leading to interior temples, and on the sides of this passage are pillars with peculiar capitals which seem to indicate Jain origin. The way upward was dimly lighted, and all manner of accidents seemed possible. In fact, there was a very serious accident in 1849, when five hundred persons were killed. At one landing there was a school of small boys; at another,122 there were groups of worshippers making their descent; turning to the left, we saw a small temple of Siva. ”

“ The Digambara, however, do not consider the straining-cloth, brush, and gauze before the mouth essential to the character of an ascetic, while the Swetambara insist on them. There is in the Central Provinces another small sect called Channāgri or Samaiya, and known elsewhere as Dhundia. These do not put images in their temples at all, but only copies of the Jain sacred books, and pay reverence [224] to them. They will, however, worship in regular Jain temples at places where there are none of their own.
Jain ascetics with cloth before mouth and sweeping-brush
7. ”

“ It shows, too, a progress in design at a time when Buddhist art in India was marked by decay; and it exhibits such progress in mythology, that though there can be no doubt as to the purity of the Buddhism of Boro Buddor, anyone might fairly argue that this temple belonged either to that religion or to Hinduism. It is in fact one of those compromises that in India would be called Jaina; in other words, one of those transitional examples of which we have many in Java, but the want of which leaves such a gap in our history of architecture in India. ”

“ Nothing, however, comes up to the veneration of footprints among Jainas. I visited the magnificent temple erected by Hāthi-Singh at Ahmedabad, as well as the underground shrine dedicated to Ādinath, and another great Jaina temple at Kaira. The first consists of a large quadrangle, approached by a beautifully carved marble gateway. The principal shrine is in the centre. All around the quadrangle is a kind of cloister, in which are about thirty subordinate shrines, each containing the image of a particular Jina or Tīrthan-kara. ”

“ As an illustration of one of the three great temples will be given further on, a view of one of the smaller Jaina temples, that of Parswanatha (Woodcut No. 137) , will suffice to illustrate the style of art here employed. Its porch either never was added or has been removed and replaced in modern times by a brick abomination with pointed arches. This, however, hardly interferes with the temple itself. There is nothing probably in Hindu architecture that surpasses the richness of its three-storeyed base combined with the extreme elegance of outline and delicate detail of the upper part. ”

“ The idol, with legs doubled under him, is sitting cross-legged under the canopy inlaid with gold leaf. Jain, the god, was naked, and in this he differs from the Hindu gods, who are always represented clothed. This used to give rise to serious riots on the day in the year when Jain was paraded through the streets in procession, the Hindus pelting him with mud, and a free fight generally ensuing between the different followers. A military force is brought out now on this day of the year for the protection of Jain, at the expense of his believers. ”

“ This unfortunately is only too often the case with Jaina temples. If a Hindu temple or Mahomedan mosque is once deserted and goes to decay, no one ever after repairs it, but its materials are ruthlessly employed to build a new temple or mosque according to the newest fashion of the day. With the Jains it is otherwise. If a man{231} is not rich enough to build a new fane, he may at least be able to restore an old one, and the act with them seems equally meritorious, as it usually is considered to be with us ”

“ The roof and domes are all of Jaina architecture, so that no trace of the Moorish style is to be seen internally; but the exterior is as purely of Mahomedan architecture. There is another mosque at Dhar, near Mandu, of more modern date, and, without doubt, a re-arrangement of a Jaina temple. Another, in the fort at Jaunpore, as well as many other mosques at Ahmedabad and elsewhere, all show the same system of taking down and re-arranging the materials on a different plan. If, therefore, the pillars at the Kutub were in situ, the case would be exceptional ”

“ The Sacred Hill of Sutrunjya, near Palitana.
where there are a sufficient number of votaries to support a temple, as in other religions; but, beyond this, the Jains seem, almost more than any sect, to have realised the idea that to build a temple, and to place an image in it, was in itself a highly meritorious act, wholly irrespective of its use to any of their co-religionists. Building a temple is with them a prayer in stone, which they conceive to be{228} eminently acceptable to the deity and likely to secure them benefits both here and hereafter. ”

“ Of all the sects the Jains are the most colorless, the most insipid. They have no literature worthy of the name. They were not original enough to give up many orthodox features, so that they seem like a weakened rill of Brahmanism, cut off from the source, yet devoid of all independent character. A religion in which the chief points insisted upon are that one should deny God, worship man, and nourish vermin, has indeed no right to exist; nor has it had as a system much influence on the history of thought. As in the case of Buddhism, the refined Jain metaphysics are probably a late growth. ”