Jaina Vihara

J.D.M.Beglar, who visited Sirpur in 1872-73 has mentioned about remains of a Jaina monastery at Sirpur. He noticed that there was a votive Caitya with four nude Jaina images in its four corners. The above-mentioned Jaina Viara was near the Gandhesvara temple and close to the small fort (chota kiila).

A Jaina Vihar came to light in 2007, 300 m east of Gandhesvara temple. It comprises of a central pillared mandapa measuring 16.0 x 15.0 m and having several rooms and verandas.

“Adjacent to the Tivaradeva Mahavihara, we were taken to an archaeological site named SRP 24-25. To the untrained eye, the entire site looks like a maze of waist-high foundations, paved coutryards and the occassional pillar. To the historically informed, however, it is the glimpse of a city from the 6th centuey AD. The site is primarily a complex housing three temples–one Jain and the others Hindu. The temples were surrounded by a fortified wall. Outside the fortified walls, was the city. I have been a student of history in my college days but standing there as i did, with the sun on my back and the wind through my hair, I soaked up the knowledge that no book can ever impart.

One could easily make out the main street that ended in the temple and structures flanking it, which could be nothing else but shops selling incense and other puja paraphernalia. You can see shops like this even today in front of any temple, anywhere in India. Here lies the beauty of our great nation. While we might be making huge progress in fields of science and all fields futuristic, there are events, customs and traditions which have remained virtually unchanged for thousands of years.”

The rooms in front of mandapa to its north and south measure 3.90 x 2.30 m while adjoining rooms to the east and west measures 2.30 x 2.60 m, the rooms in east and west measure 4.90 x 2.50 m each. The vihara is approached from north through a pillared entrance leading to a verandah measuring 11.10 x 2.10 m. From the vihara area two fragmentary sculptures have been recovered. One is a torso portion with thin waist in sitting posture while the other is the head portion of a deity with elongated ears and conical canopy over the head. Both appear to be the Jaina figures.

The Jaina temple architecture reached its perfection in the 11^th12^th century A.D. in the artistic Bhand Deval of Arang near Sirpur with the wonderful life-size nude black-marble images of Ajittanatha, Neminatha and Sreyamsanatha. This extant Jaina temple at Arang indicates the evolution of a temples style in the span of two/three centuries culminating in the temple of Sirpur-Arang region.