Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c35.11

c35.11

In addition to the temple-cities just described, there are other sacred sites, mostly on the western side of the country, on which the Jains have built temples of great size and considerable architectural importance, chief among these, and fully representative of the style, is the Chaumukh temple of Adinatha at Ranpur near Sadari, in Marwar, situated within the Godvad province of Jodhpur State. An inscription on a pillar states that one Depaka was the architect, producing the building to the order of a "devout worshipper of the Arhats," named Dharanaka in A.D. 1439. Some idea of the proportions and complexity of this temple may be gained when it is realized that it covers a space of over forty thousand square feet, an area corresponding approximately to that of Wadham College, Oxford, and that it consists of twenty-nine halls containing as many as four hundred and twenty pillars, the designs of no two of which, are alike. Such a large and extensive conception can hardly claim to be a unified whole, and as a matter of fact it resolves itself into a comprehensive structural scheme consisting of an orderly aggregation of shrines, symmetrically disposed around a larger one in the centre, the entire complex erected on a lofty plinth, and contained within a high and solid boundary wall. This wall surrounding a square of two hundred feet side, is in reality the main feature of the exterior, as it forms the chief elevational aspect, recalling at the same time those battlemented fortifications of the temple-cities, but in this instance treated more architecturally and also more pacifically. Not only does the wall with its massive substructure safeguard the sanctity of the shrines within, but it also emphasises by its almost unbroken circuit that desire for seclusion which seems essential to the devotional ceremonies of the Jains. In place however of the militant crenellations of the temple-city parapets, at Ranpur these take the form of light and graceful turrets, one above each of the sixty-six cells, or *bhamlīs*, attached to its inner face. Behind this outwork of pointed fanes rises an array of tall spires and rounded cupolas to produce a charmingly picturesque effect. Of the sikharas there are five, the largest and most prominent surmounting the central sanctuary, with each of the others over a corner shrine, while the cupolas are twenty in number, each forming the roof of a pillared hall. (Plate CXXIII).