Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c35.2

c35.2

ALTHOUGH there is no style of architecture in India that can be referred to as Jain, the temples belonging to this religion show by their arrangements that they are neither Buddhist nor Brahmanical, but so designed as to conform to the ritual of the Jains. Mahavira, the last Jain leader, is generally regarded as the founder of the creed, but it is claimed that the same doctrine was propounded during countless ages by a succession of earlier teachers. There are twenty-four of these saints, known as Jinas or Tirthankars, literally "conquerors" or "leaders," and it is from the word "Jina" that the comparatively modern name of Jain is derived. These Jinas, or Tirthankars as they are more commonly called, having become deified, usually occupy similar high places in the Jain temple as the Hindu divinities do in theirs, and shrines are dedicated to them. And just as Jainism has not inaptly been defined as a theological mean between Buddhism and Brahmanism, progressing more or less parallel with these two creeds, so the architecture associated with each belief has also moved on parallel lines Where the followers of Buddhism and Brahmanism have resorted to the rock-cut form of expression, the Jains have likewise excavated their places of worship, and where these have produced the structural type of temple, so the Jains have built theirs. Whether quarried out of the rock or built of masonry, the general character of the Jain architecture has been very similar in style to that of the Buddhists and Hindus of the same period and the same region.