History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s3: Pâlitânâ.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s3
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Pâlitânâ.
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The grouping together of their temples into what may be called "Cities of Temples" is a peculiarity which the Jains have practised to a greater extent than the followers of any other religion in India. The Buddhists grouped their stûpas and vihâras near and around sacred spots, as at Sânchî, Mânikyâla, or in Peshâwar, and elsewhere; but they were scattered, and each was supposed to have a special meaning, or to mark some sacred spot. The Hindûs also grouped their temples, as at Bhuvaneswar or Benares, in great numbers together; but in all cases, so far as we know, because these were the centres of a population who believed in the gods to whom the temples were dedicated, and wanted them for the purposes of their worship. Neither of these religions, however, possess such a group of temples, for instance, as that at Satrunjaya, or Pâlitânâ—as it is usually called from the neighbouring town, in Gujarât, about 35 miles from Goghâ and Bhaunagar, on its eastern coast (Woodcut No. 277).
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It is sacred to Rishabhanâth, the first of the twenty-four Jaina Tîrthankaras, and covers the two summits of the Satrunjaya hill, each about 360 yards long, with the depression between them. They are grouped in separate enclosures called Tûks, surrounded by high battlemented walls, each having at least one principal temple with varying numbers of smaller ones around it. Nominally there are nine Tûks, but more correctly
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277. The Sacred Hill of Satrunjaya, near Pálitânâ—looking south-west.
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eleven, and the number of temples and small shrines number over five hundred.¹ The number of images of the Tîrthankaras in these temples is very great, and is constantly being augmented; in 1889 the number of separate images counted was 6,449 exclusive of smaller ones on slabs. A few watchmen only remain during the night, at the gateways of the Tûks. The priests come up every morning and perform the daily services, and a few attendants keep the place clean, which they do with the most assiduous attention, or feed the sacred pigeons which are the sole denizens of the spot; but there are no human habitations, properly so called, within the walls. The pilgrim or the stranger ascends in the morning, and returns when he has performed his devotions or satisfied his curiosity. He must not eat or drink, or at least must not cook food, on the sacred hill, and he must not sleep there. It is a city of the gods, and meant for them only, and not intended for the use of mortals.
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¹ The official inventory, kept in the Bhandar or treasury, gave the number of shrines in 1868 as five hundred and thirteen. A translation of this document was given in the 'Lists of Antiquarian Remains in the Bombay Presidency,' etc. (1885), pp. 188, 193-213; but in the 2nd edition (1897) its editor has employed a different arrangement of the temples.
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Jaina temples and shrines are, of course, to be found in cities, and where there are a sufficient number of votaries to support a temple, as in other religions; but, beyond this, the Jains seem, almost more than any sect, to have realised the idea that to build a temple, and to place images in it, was in itself a highly meritorious act, whilst they also share in the merits of its use by their co-religionists. Building a temple is with them a prayer in stone, which they conceive to be eminently duteous and likely to secure them benefits both here and hereafter.
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It is in consequence of the Jains believing to a greater extent than the other Indian sects in the efficacy of temple-building as a means of salvation, that their architectural performances bear so much larger a proportion to their numbers than those of other religions. It may also be owing to the fact that nine out of ten, or ninety-nine in a hundred, of the Jaina temples are the gifts of single wealthy individuals of the middle classes, that these buildings generally are small and deficient in that grandeur of proportion that marks the buildings undertaken by royal command or belonging to important organised communities. It may, however, be also owing to this that their buildings are more elaborately finished than those of more national importance. When a wealthy individual of the class who build these temples desires to spend his money on such an object, he is much more likely to feel pleasure in elaborate detail and exquisite finish than on great purity or grandeur of conception.
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All these peculiarities are found in a more marked degree at Pâlitânâ than at almost any other known place, and, fortunately for the student of the style, extending over a considerable period of time. Some of the temples may be as old as the 11th century, but the Moslim invaders of 14th and 15th centuries made sad havoc of all the older shrines, and we have only fragments of a few of them.¹ In the latter half of the 16th century, however, the Jains obtained tolerance and security, and forthwith began to rebuild their old fanes. From 1500 they are spread pretty evenly over all the intervening period down to the present date. But the largest number and some of the most important were erected within the last seventy years, or within the memory of living men. Fortunately, too, these modern examples by no means disgrace the age in which they are built. Their sculptures are inferior, and some of their details are deficient in meaning and expression; but, on the whole, they are equal, or nearly so, to the average examples of earlier ages. It is this that makes Satrunjaya one of the most interesting places that can be named for the philosophical student of architectural art, inasmuch as he can there see the various processes by which cathedrals were produced in the Middle Ages, carried on on a larger scale than almost anywhere else, and in a more natural manner. It is by watching the methods still followed in designing buildings in that remote locality that we become aware how it is that the uncultivated Hindû can rise in architecture to a degree of originality and perfection which has not been attained in Europe since the Middle Ages, but which might easily be recovered by following the same processes.
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¹ The Dhundiya or Lumpâka sect (founded in 1451), refuse to worship images, nor allow them or pictures in their Upâsrayas or places of worship, though they revere the Jinas.—'Oriental Christian Spectator,' 1835, p. 295. They are blamed for causing destruction among the Satrunjaya temples in a feud between them and the Tapagachha Jains.
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Among the Satrunjaya temples there is every variety of form and structure, and a monograph on this group, fully illustrated, would be of great architectural, antiquarian, and mythological interest.² The chief temple is that dedicated to Mulanâyak Srî Âdîswar or Rishabhanâth, near the west end of the Tûk occupying the southern ridge. It is described in an inscription at the entrance as "the seventh restoration" of the temple, carried out in 1530 by Karmasimha, minister to Ratnasimha of Chitor. This "restoration" apparently consisted in the rebuilding of an old temple dating from about A.D. 960, a new colossal image, and the building of the gateway in which is the shrine of Pundarîka.¹ The great temple is an imposing two storeyed building with a lofty spire, and with its base surrounded by many small shrines. Within, besides the great marble image of Rishabha, there are literally hundreds of others of all sizes;² and, as at Rânpur and elsewhere, there are miniature Muhammadan qiblas set up outside as a protection against Moslim iconoclasts. The area in front of this is flanked by two considerable temples on each side—that on the north-east being an elegant two-storeyed temple of the peculiar Jaina form known as a Chaumukh or four-faced temple. This one has, in the central hall, a quadruple image of Sântinâth—the 16th Jina or Tîrthankara: the images are placed so as to appear as one block, a similar figure facing the four entrances.
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² The Satrunjaya temples were surveyed by Mr. Cousens some years ago; but the results are not yet published.
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¹ 'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. ii. p. 35. Pundarîka was the chief of Rishabha's disciples, and has a shrine at the entrance of this Tîrthankar's temples.
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² Among those in the shrine on the upper floor are images of the favourite Srî or Mahâlakshmî, and of Gautama-svâmi; and in other temples are images also of Ganesa, Sarasvatî and other Hindû divinities.
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Round the great temple are others of many sorts: some containing samosaranas³ or Chaumukhs, as they are termed; others "pâdukâ" or footprints of Âdîswar, and one of the latter shrines, erected in marble by Karmasâh or Karmasimha in 1530, is under a Râyana tree,⁴ the scion of that under which Rishabha is said to have attained moksha or deliverance.
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³ Gujarâtî—Samosan; p. 34 *note*.
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⁴ The Mimusops hexandria of Roxburgh; Hemachandra and others specify the Vata or Banyan as Rishabha's Bo-tree.
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278. Plan of Chaumukh Temple at Satrunjaya. (From a Plan by the Editor.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.
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The largest temple in the Kharatara-vasî Tuk, which occupies much of the north ridge, is a Chaumukh temple of Âdinâth, erected in 1618, by Setthi Devarâj, a banker of Ahmadâbâd and his family—of whom his sons Somajî and Dûpajî were Sanghepatis or leaders of the great pilgrimage at its consecration. It is of two storeys, and has a well-proportioned sikhara, 96 ft. in height, and as shown in the plan (Woodcut No. 278) consists of a mandap on the east 31 ft. 2 in. square with twelve pillars forming an inner square on which rests the dome 21 ft. 6 in. across, and the shrine beyond it, is 23 ft. square with entries on all sides. In the centre of this is the great quadruple image of Âdinâth, placed on a marble throne about 11 ft. square with pillars at the corners. The west half of the shrine is surrounded by a verandah, the pillars of which are very richly carved, having on their capitals musicians and dancing figures. The upper storey has elegant projecting balcony windows, and is reached by a stair on the north side of the temple. At the principal entrance are two very small shrines—on the right of Gaumukh Yaksha, and on the left of Chakresvarî Yakshinî—the two spirits supposed to attend this Tîrthankara.
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[Figure: 279. Plan of Nandîsvara-dvîpa Temple at Satrunjaya. Scale 25 ft. to 1 in.]
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A type of temple, unique in its arrangement, of which there are two examples here, may be noted. In the small enclosure called the Nandîsvara-dvîpa Tûk, on the south side of the northern ridge is the first of these. It was erected by the Nagar Seth of Ahmadâbâd in 1840, and as the plan (Woodcut No. 279) shows, it is a square of about 32 ft. with verandahs about 5 ft. wide attached to each side. The floor is divided by twelve piers into nine smaller squares, and the domes of the roof are supported by arches between these piers. The walls of the verandahs and inner square are of perforated stonework, and it has entrances from all four sides—the principal being on the west. Of the nine smaller squares into which the interior is divided, the five inner forming a cross are occupied by pyramidal sikharas with recesses on their four sides for marble images of the Tîrthankaras. Hence they go under the general name of Chaumukhs. In the central square is the largest of these spires, and in the centre of each of the four arms of the cross is one of secondary size, with smaller ones on each side of it and pairs in contact in the corners. Thus they number fifty-three in all. The five larger Chaumukhs represent mythological mounts: the large central one represents Satrunjaya itself. On the west of it, towards the main entrance, is Ashtâpada, on which Âdiswar or Rishabha is said to have obtained *moksha* or complete emancipation; in the north square is Meru-sikhara; in the south one Sameta-sikhara; and in the east is a Samosan or Samosarana—a term we shall meet with again. The temple is thus a shrine of "High Places." The other temple—almost a copy of it—was erected in the Vimalavasî Tûk, some thirty-five years later.
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The Motisâh Tuk, which occupies the east end of the depression between the ridges of the summit, measures about 230 ft. by 224 ft. surrounded by a lofty wall with round towers at the corners. It appears on the front part of the photograph, in Woodcut No. 277. This great square, besides the central temple, dedicated to Âdinâth, and measuring over all 81 ft. by 67 ft. 6 in., contains also some fifteen other temples—some of respectable dimensions. The whole is surrounded by a *bhamti* or cloister of more than a hundred small shrines along the enclosing walls. This great Tûk was constructed in 1836, at the expense of Setthi Motisâh Amichand, a wealthy banker and merchant of Bombay, and of his family relations.¹ In such examples as these we see the work that native craftsmen still execute when left to themselves. Unfortunately the exterior of the temple has been painted, in late years, in an exceedingly vulgar style.²
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¹ 'The Temples of Satrunjaya,' pp. 22, 23, and photograph plates 15, and 25-28.
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² For a more detailed account of Satrunjaya, the reader may refer to 'The Temples of Satrunjaya' (Bombay, 1869), introduction—of which the text was partly reprinted at Ahmadâbâd, 1878; and partly in 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. ii. pp. 354-357. The early history and the tenets of the Jains will be found in Bühler's 'Indian Sect of the Jainas' (English translation), London, 1903.