1.3. The Temples of Gujarat ( c. 941-1311 A.D.)

[Full title: (A) The Northern or Indo-Aryan Phase; (iii) The Temples of Gujarat ( c. 941-1311 A.D.)]

Western India including Gujarat and Western Rajsthana form a separate group of temples group of temples due to the peculiar development of regional style of temple architecture during the tenth to fourteenth centuries. The temples of this region contain the usual components of a Hindu shrine; a cella, a pillared hall or mandapa. But a great architectural skill is shown in joining the cella with the hall i. e. Mandapa. The scheme followed is well described by Percy Brown, "The plans of these temples resolve themselves broadly into two kinds, those in which the two compartments (i e. the cella and the hall) are joined so as to unite the entire building within a parellelogram, and those in which each compartment forms a rectangle, in the later case the two are attached 3. Ibid pl. LXXXIV opp. p. 134 4. Al. p. 100 s. 1 ABH p. pl. LXXXVIII 6. IABH p.p. 139

52 The Structural Temples of Gujarat diagonally." The former system is well illustrated by that of Modhera, if its detached hypostyle hall or Sabha Mandapa is excluded, while the temple of Somanatha is the typical example of the diagonal arrangement. The facade of the temples is divided horizonatally into three main portions consisting of (1) the moulded basement (Pitha) (2) the wall-face, upto the entablature (mandovara) and (3) the Superstructure ( Sikhara ). The second division usually carries a heavy-sculptured pantheon right round the edifice. But the third portion is the most significant and in the case of mandapa, consists of low pyramid of horizontal courses. The superstructure of a west Indian Sikhara, however, is most distinctive and comprised a cluster of members including semi-detached turrets at the lower portion. The interior of the temples is mainly peristylar, the pillars being of a characteristic shape with elegant carvings. The interiors of these temple display several notable characteristics. The columns of the mandapa are arranged geometrically leaving an octagonal area, or nave, in the centre, while outside of the mandapa they are so spaced so as to constitute the aisles. Surrounding the nave the pillars are provided with an extension or attic of dwarf-pillars also bearing bracket capitals. These attic pillars, with the architrave above, while raising the height of the nave also support the central dome, which consists of a shallow bowl-shaped ceiling formed by a succession of overlaping courses. The shrine doorway is designed so that its decorative scheme composes with that of pillars.8 The temple cities or tirthas (places of pilgrimage) of Jains are considered to be of remote age. Inspite of the known antiquity of these mountain sanctuaries few of the temples comprising them are earlier than the fifteenth century, and most are much later. Various causes have been responsible for the older buildings having been obliterated, one being the 7. IABH. p. p. 143. 8. IABH p. p. 144.

The Development of the Regional Phases of the Temple 53 practice of the Jains themselves of pulling down their temples when decayed and erecting new ones in their places, many of the walls bearing evidences of this, as they reveal stones of earlier structures having been built into them. As, they exist at present, these religious sites are surrounded by embattled walls, with their interiors divided up into tuks or wards, like each tuk having massive the inner courts of fortified cities, circular bastions at its angles, entry being obtained through storng gateways. These temple-cities, are laid out on no specific plan, the buildings being arranged on such level spaces as the contours of the hill naturally provide. They contain several hundreds of edifices. Although many of the temples may seem complicated in appearance, each is designed as a rule, on the principles common to the relegious architecture of the late medieval period, the elaborations being due to such factors. as the addition of numerous supplementary shrines, to the application of double stories, and to the practice of imposing pillared cloisters around larger examples. In the jain temples one variation in the general scheme of the temple is noticeable and that is the frequent production of a class of temple known as Chaumukha or four faced. The chaumukha is a quadruple image, or a group of four images either of one Tirthankara, or of four different Tirthankaras placed back to back so as to face the four cardinal points. Such a plan necessiated a shrine chamber with four door ways which effected both the design of the sanctuaries and the shape of the vimana as a whole 10 Two of the most important temple cities are on mountains in Saurastra, one being on Satrunjaya 11 and the other on Girnar. 12 The largest of all is that of Satrunjaya, south of town of Palitana. Out of large number of shrines of various shapes 9. IABH. p. p. 162. 10. |ABH p. p. 162. 11. IABH p. plt. CIV. A 12. IABH. plts. Clll Fig. 1 CIV. Fig. 2.

54 The Structural Temples of Gujarat and sizes, a characteristic example is the Chaumukha temple of Adinatha, built in A. D. 1618, but on the site of much earlier structure. This temple shows how the builders put into effect the plan of the fourfaced shrine. The cell is provided with the four exquisite entrances, the entrances, the east being connected with the assembly hall in the front and the three others openings have porches leading into surrounding courtyard. The Neminatha temple, the other famous temple city on Girnar, bears an inscription indicating that it was restored in the 13 th century and is probably not very different in its general appearance from what it was when first built a century before. Standing within a quadrangular courtyard, it is surrounded by a range of pillared cloisters containing over seventy cells. The other famous temple in the group of Girnar temples is the Triple temple of Vastupala-Tejapala. The principal Sanctuary contains the image of Mallinatha. the 19 th Tirthankara and the side chambers contain monuments of solid masonary, called 'Sumeru' and 'Sameta Sikhara'. 13