History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s10: Converted Temples.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s10
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Converted Temples.
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Another form in which we can study the architecture of the Jains in the north of India is the courtyards of the early mosques which the Muhammadans erected on their first entry into India. So essentially do some of these retain their former features that it might be convenient to describe them here. It is doubtful, however, in some instances whether the pillars are—some or all of them—in their original position, or to what extent they have been altered or eked out by the conquerors. Be this as it may, for our present purposes the one fact that is certain is, that none of them are now Jaina temples. All are Muhammadan mosques, and it will, therefore, be more logical, as well as more convenient, to group them with the latter rather than with the former class of buildings.
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Were it not for this, the Arhai-dîn-ka Jhomprâ, at Ajmîr—so called—might be, and has been, described as a Jaina temple:¹ it was probably built on the site and with the materials of Brahmanical ones. So might a great part of the mosque at the Qutb, near Delhi. That at Kanauj, however, was originally a rearrangement, and has been much altered since I knew it; that at Dhâr, near Mandû, is of comparatively recent date; while the Hindû and Jaina pillars, so frequently used at Ahmadâbâd in the fifteenth century, are all imported, and used in positions for which they never were intended.
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¹ Tod’s ‘Rajasthan,’ vol. i. p. 778, and plate facing it.
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The astylar temples of the Hindûs were useless to the Moslims except as quarries—a purpose to which they were frequently applied; but the light columnar style of the Jains not only supplied materials more easily adapted to their purposes, but furnished hints of which the Moslim architects were not slow to avail themselves. The architecture of Ahmadâbâd, for instance (A.D. 1410 to 1572), is derived far more directly from the Jaina than from any style familiar to their co-religionists in any other part of the world. The same may be said of that of Jaunpur, though in the last-named city there is hardly a stone that can be said to be derived direct from any previously existing building.
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The process by which this conversion of a Jaina temple to a Moslim mosque was effected will be easily understood by referring to the plan of that of Vimala on Mount Âbû (Woodcut No. 283, *supra*, p. 37). By removing the principal cell and its porch from the centre of the court, and building up the entrances of the cells that surround it, a courtyard was at once obtained, surrounded by a double colonnade, which always was the typical form of a mosque. Still one essential feature was wanting—a more important side towards Mecca; this they easily obtained by removing the smaller pillars from that side, and re-erecting in their place the larger pillars of the porch, with their dome in the centre; and, if there were two smaller domes, by placing one of them at each end. Thus, without a single new column or carved stone being required, they obtained a mosque which, for convenience and beauty, was unsurpassed by anything they afterwards erected from their own original designs.
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JAINA STYLE IN SOUTHERN INDIA.
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Bettas—Bastîs.
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A GOOD deal has been done in the way of photographing the monuments of the Jains in southern India, but few plans of their buildings and fewer architectural details have yet been properly published, so that altogether our knowledge of the subject is somewhat superficial; but it is interesting from its extent, and curious from the unexpected relationship it reveals with other styles. The Jains are said to have come to southern India, owing to a famine in the north in the first century, B.C.¹
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¹ ‘Epigraphia Indica,’ vol. iv. pp. 24, 26, 28; ‘Indian Antiquary,’ vol. xxi. p. 60.
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We know from their cave temples that there were Jains at Aihole and Bâdâmi (*supra*, p. 18) as early as the end of the 6th, or certainly in the 7th century;² but after that there is a pause or break of four or five centuries, when the style reappears in strength at Belgaum and in that neighbourhood in the 11th and 12th centuries.³ In the same manner southern Jains seem to have pressed northward as far as Elûrâ in the 9th century, taking their Dravidian style with them (*supra*, p. 20); but there again we stop, in so far as any direct evidence has been found, till the great outburst of Jaina magnificence at the end of the 10th century, which then seems to have continued in the north till disturbed by the Muhammadan invasion. It is by no means clear whether the destruction of their temples, as at Ajmîr and Delhi, may not have led many of the Jains to move south to the Dekhan. Of course it existed in Mysore long before, and some of the early kings of the Chalukya and Hoysala Ballâla dynasties were nominally patrons at least of the Jains. All their later buildings, however, so far as we know them, either at Somnâthpur, Belûr, or Halebîd, belong to the Brahmanical sects.
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² ‘Archæological Survey of Western India,’ vol. i. pp. 25, 26, 37, 38, and plates 36, 37, 48, and 49.
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³ But early in the 8th century Kunkumahâdevî, sister of Vijayâditya, the Chalukya king, built a Jaina temple at Lakshmesvar.
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If Buddhism was not prevalent or powerful in the south, there are everywhere traces of the prevalence of Serpent worship in those districts where the Jaina religion now prevails. Sculptured serpents, with many heads and in all their conventional forms, are found everywhere about and in the temples; and Subrahmanya in South Kanara, below the Ghâts, is still a principal seat of Serpent worship in southern India.¹ It is not, unfortunately, easy to say how far Tree-worship was mixed up with the latter faith, but the observances of Serpent-worship are intimately connected with those paid to Trees. Trees perish more easily and quickly than sculptured stones, and when the worship ceases its traces disappear more readily. There are indications that it did prevail here also, but, till purposely enquired after, it is impossible to say to what extent. Enough, however, is known, even now, to justify the assertion that Tree and Serpent worship did exist antecedently in those districts in which Jainism prevailed in the south, as also in the Dravidian countries where the people are devoted to the worship of Siva and the members of the Hindû Pantheon.²
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¹ 'Madras Manual of Administration,' Prelim. arts, pp. 82, 83. Nâgarkoil in Travankor, is also a chief seat of Snake-worship.
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² In the Hinduism of Malabar, Phallic and Saktî-worship and Tree-worship are inextricably mixed up with Snake-worship.—Logan's 'Malabar,' vol. i. p. 183.
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The truth of the matter appears to be, that until plans are made available of their buildings it is idle to speculate about the introduction of Jainism into the south, or its vicissitudes during its existence there. It is a task which, it is to be feared, few are capable of undertaking, and that fewer still are willing to devote the time and labour requisite for its successful accomplishment; but it is worthy of being attempted, for, if successfully carried out, it would add to our scant stores of knowledge one of the most interesting chapters still available for the religious and artistic history of the people of India.