History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s3.8

v2.c24.s3.8

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.