History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s6: Pârasnâth.
History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s6
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Pârasnâth.
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The highest point of the Bengal range of hills, south of Râjmahal, has characteristically been appropriated by the Jains as one of their most favourite Tîrthas. They name it Pârasnâth and Samet Sikhar, and no less than nineteen of their twenty-four Tîrthankaras are said to have died there, or rather "attained to Moksha"—blessedness—among others Pârswanâth, the last but one, and he consequently gave to the hill the name it now bears.
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Unfortunately, no photographer has yet visited the hill, nor any one who was able to discriminate between what was new and what old. Such accounts, however, as we have are by no means encouraging, and do not lead us to expect any very remarkable architectural remains. The temples on the hill are numerous, but they seem all modern, or at least to have been so completely repaired in modern times that their more ancient features cannot now be discerned. Something may also be due to the fact that Bengal has never been essentially a Jaina country. The Pâla dynasty of Bengal seem to have remained Buddhist nearly to the Muhammadan conquest (A.D. 1203), when they seem suddenly to have dropped that religion and plunged headlong into the Vaishnava and Saiva superstitions. Whether from this, or from some other cause we cannot now explain, Jainism does not seem to have taken root in Bengal. At the time that it, with Buddhism, took its rise in the 5th century B.C. Bihâr was the intellectual and the political centre of India, and Buddhism long held its sway in the country of its birth. Before, however, Jainism became politically important, the centre of power had gravitated towards the West, and Jainism does not seem to have attained any great importance in the country where it first appeared. Were it not for this, there seems little doubt but that Pârasnâth would have been more important in their eyes than Pâlitânâ or Girnâr; but it is not so, and it consequently occupies only a very slight corner in an architectural history of India.
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Besides the effect the Jains sought to obtain by grouping their temples on hill-tops, the love of the picturesque, which they seem to have cultivated more than any other sect in India, led them to seek it in an exactly opposite direction. Some of their favourite Tîrthas are found in deep and secluded valleys. One at Mukhtagiri, for instance, near Gawilgarh, is situated in a deep well-wooded valley, traversed by a stream that breaks in its course into numerous picturesque waterfalls.
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Another example of this love of the picturesque is found at Rânpur, near Sâdari, in Godwâr district of the Jodhpur territory. In a remote valley piercing the western flank of the Ârâvalli or Âdâbalâ hills, there is a small group of temples, not perhaps so picturesquely situated as those at Mukhtagiri, but of more interest architecturally, and situated in a spot evidently selected for its natural beauties.
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288. Plan of Temple at Rânpur near Sâdari. (From a Plan by Mr. H. Cousens.) Scale 100 ft. to 1 in.
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The principal temple here was erected during the reign of Kumbhakarna or Kumbha Rânâ of Mewâr.¹ He seems to have been a liberal patron of the Jains, and during his long and prosperous reign filled his country with beautiful buildings, both civil and ecclesiastical. Amongst others was built this temple of Rânpur in 1440, situated in a lonely and deserted glen, running into the western slope of the hills, below Kumbha’s favourite fort of Kumalmer. Notwithstanding former neglect, it is still nearly perfect, and is probably the most complicated and extensive Jaina temple in India, and the most complete for the ritual of the sect.
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¹ An inscription states that the temple was built by a Jaina named Dharanâka in A.D. 1439.—‘Bhaunagar Inscriptions,’ pp. 114f.
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It is raised on a lofty basement and from the plan (Woodcut No. 288) it will be perceived that it is nearly a square, 198 ft. by 205 ft., exclusive of the projections on each face. In the
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289. View in the Temple at Rânpur. (From a Sketch by the Author.)
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centre stands the great shrine, open on the four sides and occupied by a quadruple image in white marble of Âdinâth or Rishabha, the first Tîrthankara, the temple being one of the Chaumukh class. In the upper storey is a similar shrine, approached by doors opening from the terraced roofs of the building. Near the four angles of the court are four smaller shrines, and around them, or on each side of them, are twenty domes, supported by about 420 columns; four of these domes or mandaps—the central ones of each group—are three storeys in height, and tower over the others; and one—facing the principal entrance—is double, having a second dome over the inner, supported by the very unusual number of sixteen columns, and is 34 ft. in diameter, the others being only 21½ ft. Light is admitted to the building by four uncovered courts¹ at the sides of these domes, and forming the corners of a rectangle round the shrine 105 ft. from west to east by 95 ft. across. Around this are twelve domes—three on each side—with the four smaller shrines already mentioned in the corners, and the whole is surrounded by a *bhamtî* or range of cells for images, each of which has a pyramidal roof of its own.
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¹ In the north-west court grows the Râjâdana or Râyana tree, sacred to Âdinâth, and a necessary adjunct of his temple, whilst beneath it is a slab carved with his Pâdukâ or footprints, representing the spiritual authority of the Tîrthankara. The two west courts are about 20 ft. by 37½ ft. and the two on the east about 26 ft. square, but with the inner corner of each cut off by a corner of the central platform.
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The internal effect of this forest of columns may be gathered from the view (Woodcut No. 289) taken across one of its courts; but it is impossible that any view can reproduce the endless variety of perspective and the play of light and shade which results from the disposition of the pillars, and of the domes, and from the mode in which the light is introduced. A wonderful effect also results from the number of cells, most of them containing images of the Tîrthankaras, which everywhere meet the view. Besides the twelve under the larger sikharas there are eighty-six cell shrines of varied form and size surrounding the interior, many of them connected by inside passages, and all their façades more or less adorned with sculpture.
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The general external effect of the Rânpur temple may be judged of by the photograph, Plate XXII.; owing to its lofty basement, and the greater elevation of the principal domes, it gives a more favourable impression of a Jaina temple than is usually the case—the greatest defect of these buildings as architectural designs being the want of ornament on their exterior faces; this, however, is more generally the case in the older than in the more modern temples.
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The immense number of parts in the building, and their general smallness, prevents its laying claim to anything like architectural grandeur; but their variety, their beauty of detail—no two pillars in the whole building being exactly alike—the grace with which they are arranged, the tasteful admixture of domes of different heights with flat ceilings, and the mode in which the light is introduced, combine to produce an excellent effect. Indeed, I know of no other building in India, of the same class, that leaves so pleasing an impression, or affords so many hints for the graceful arrangement of columns in an interior.¹
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¹ 'Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient Architecture in Hindustan,' p. 42, and 'Architecture and Scenery in Gujarat and Rajputana,' pp. 19-22, and plates.
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Besides its merits of design, its dimensions are by no means to be despised; it covers altogether about 48,000 sq. ft., or nearly as much as one of our ordinary mediæval cathedrals, and, taking the basement into account, is nearly of equal bulk; while in amount of labour and of sculptural decorations it far surpasses any.
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Another temple here is of marble, covered outside with sculpture, and contains a black stone image of Pârswanâth. It is probably of about the same age as the larger one.