Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c35.12

c35.12

From the middle of three sides of the enclosing rectangle project the temple entrances, each a double storied portal of great elegance, that on the west being the largest, thus denoting the principal approach. Each of these entrances leads through a series of columned courts into the main halls of the temple proper. At first sight the interior appears to be a complicated labyrinth of courts and pillared halls, but its regular and balanced composition soon becomes evident. Reduced to simple terms it resolves itself into a temple within a temple, in other words a central sanctuary surrounded by a range of chapels and subsidiary shrines. The main temple, occupying the middle of the composition, is contained within a rectangular courtyard measuring 95 feet by 100 feet, which space it partially fills as it consists of a large hall standing on a plinth and graced with a hundred pillars. In the centre at the "crossing" or nave of this hall is the adytum, 25 feet square and with four entrances, its interior consisting of a cruciform chamber enshrining the *Chaumukh*, a quadruple image in white marble of Adinath, the first Tirthankar. The rectangular courtyard surrounding this main temple is open to the sky, but the four outer sides are enclosed by the range of supplementary courts referred to above. There are three of these open spaces along each side with a special sanctuary and cella known as the *Khunt-ra-mandar* at each angle, besides four other shrines one on each side of the north and south entrance halls. Such is a bare outline of the arrangements of this temple on its ground floor, but as it is in two stories, practically the whole of it is duplicated above, while portions of it, as for instance the compartments on each side of the main sanctuary, rise up to a third story. These upper stories repeat, in many respects, the disposition of those below, even to the shrine chamber, with its four openings, access to which is obtained from the terraced roofs. (Plate CXXIII).