Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c35.4

c35.4

These temple-cities, or *tirthas* (places of pilgrimage), are laid out on no specific plan, the buildings being arranged on such level spaces as the contours of the hill naturally provide. In one or two instances they consist of several hundreds of edifices, but contain no human habitation, as except for an occasional watchman, they are at nighttime entirely deserted, the gods in their shrines being left to the protection of their own sanctity. Each *tirtha* represents centuries of devotion which found expression in temple building, and they form the central object of pilgrimages and festivals at frequent intervals. Although many of the temples may seem complicated in appearance, each is designed, as a rule, on the principles common to the religious architecture of the late mediæval 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 all the larger examples. In the style of the individual buildings one variation found only in Jain temples is noticeable, and that is the frequent erection of a class of temple known as *chaumukh*, or "four-faced." This form of structure owes its shape to the particular character of the image it enshrines, as instead of a single figure facing one way, and therefore requiring only one entrance to the cella, the *chaumukh* is a quadruple image, or a group of four images, either of one Tirthankar, or of four different Tirthankars placed back to back so as to face the four cardinal points. Such a plan necessitated a shrine chamber with four doorways, a structural alteration which affected very considerably the design of the sanctuary, converting this into a cruciform compartment with an opening on each side. This again influenced the shape of the vimana as a whole, a circumstance of which the Jain builders took full advantage in their treatment of the exteriors of this temple type.