History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s8: Khajurâho.

History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s8

Language: English

Khajurâho.

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Khajurâho, the ancient capital of the Chandellas, is situated 44 miles east from Naugong, about 145 miles W.S.W. from Allahâbâd, and about 150 miles south-east from Gwâliar. It is now a wretched deserted place, but has in and around it a group of some thirty temples, which are the most beautiful in form as well as the most elegant in detail of any of the temples now standing in India.¹

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¹ In the first half of last century they were much more numerous—many having been removed for building material.

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So far as can be made out from inscriptions,² as well as from their style, it appears that all these temples, with two unimportant exceptions, were executed nearly simultaneously and almost within the limits of the 11th century; and, what is also curious, they seem to be nearly equally divided between the three religions. Roughly speaking, they are located in three groups, two consisting of Hindû temples—Saiva and Vaishnava intermixed—and one exclusively of Jaina temples. In each group there are one or more greater than the rest, and round some of them a few subordinate shrines are placed; but most of them are independent temples. Among the Saiva temples the principal is the Kandarya Mahâdeva, of which a representation will be given further on; in the Vaishnava class it is the Chaturbhuja;³ and in the Jaina the Pârswanâth: all three so like one another that it requires some familiarity with the photographs to distinguish the temple of one religion from those of the others. It looks as if all had been built by one prince, and by some arrangement that neither sect should surpass or be jealous of the other. Either from this, or from some cause we do not quite understand, we lose here those peculiarities we usually assign to Jaina temples of this age. The vimâna or sikhara is more important than the porch. There are no courtyards with circumambient cells; no prominent domes, nor, in fact, anything that distinguishes Jaina from Hindû architecture. If not under the sway of a single prince, they must have been erected in an age of extreme toleration, and when any rivalry that existed must only have been among the architects in trying who could produce the most beautiful and most exquisitely adorned building. Altogether they may perhaps be more modern than the principal Hindû shrines.

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² The inscriptions are translated in ‘Epigraphia Indica,’ vol. i. pp. 121-162.

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³ Sometimes called the Râmachandra or the Lakshmanji temple. A sketch map of the Khajurâho temples is given in Cunningham’s ‘Survey Reports,’ vol. ii. plate 95. The temple he calls Jinanâtha’s (No. 25), is that now known as Pârswanâth’s, whilst the temple of Âdinâth he calls Pârswanâth’s. Plans of the Jinanâtha (Pârswanâth) temple and of the Ganthai are given in ‘Survey Reports,’ vol. x. plate 8, and ‘Journal of Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. xlviii. at p. 294.

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[Figure: 290. Temple of Âdinâth at Khajurâho. (From a Photograph.)]

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The Jaina temples form a fairly compact group to the south-east of the others, and the largest and finest of them is the Pârswanâth temple, which extends to about 62 ft. in length by half that in breadth. It has an outside porch on two advanced pillars with two square engaged ones by the sides of the entrance. Inside, the mandapa, about 22 ft. by 17 ft., has four pillars, with respondent pilasters supporting the domed roof, constructed in the usual way by cusped recesses forming a remarkably beautiful design. Beyond the hall is the shrine, surrounded by a pradakshina passage. The outside walls are ornamented with numerous bands of mouldings and with three rows of statues, as is shown in the photographic view, Plate XVIII. (frontispiece). At the back or west end an outside shrine is attached, projecting about 9 ft. The temple was repaired and re-occupied by the Jains about 1860; but it had been restored and altered at a much earlier date.¹

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¹ An inscription on the door jamb, in characters of the 13th century, seems to be a copy from a grant made in A.D. 955 which may be about the date of the temple. But this doorway, Mr Cousens says, bears a figure of Vishnu on Garuda, and may have been taken from some Hindû temple.

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An illustration of one of the great Hindû temples will be given further on, another view of one of the smaller Jaina temples, that of Âdinâth (Woodcut No. 290), will suffice to illustrate the style of art here employed. Its porch either never was added or has been removed and replaced in modern times by a brick abomination with pointed arches. This, however, hardly interferes with the temple itself. There is nothing probably in Hindû architecture that surpasses the richness of its three-storeyed base combined with the extreme elegance of outline and delicate detail of the upper part. The sculptures on this temple, as Mr Cousens remarks, are chiefly *devîs*, and on the *âsana* or seat for the image in the shrine a figure of Garuda is carved, whilst a small loose image of a Jina is placed upon it, and no distinctly Jaina image appears on the walls. All this points to its having been built as a Vaishnava temple and afterwards appropriated by the Jains.¹

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¹ Photographs of the Jaina temples are given in Sir L. Griffin's 'Famous Monuments of Central India,' plates 48-51.

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[Figure: 291. Chausath Joginî, Khajurâho. (From a Plan by Gen. Cunningham.) Scale 50 ft. to 1 in.]

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The two exceptional temples above alluded to are, first, one called the Chausath Joginî, or sixty-four female demons. It consists merely of a courtyard, measuring 102 ft. by 59½ ft. and surrounded by sixty-four small cells, with one larger in the back wall, each of which is surmounted by a small spire, as shown in the woodcut (No. 291). This is essentially like a Jaina arrangement (see Temple of Neminâth, for instance—Woodcut No. 280, page 32); but there is only a resemblance. We know of at least two other old temples dedicated to these Joginîs: one is at Rânîpur Jhariâl in the Pâtna estate, to the south of Sambhalpur, also with sixty-five cells or recesses,² and another at Bherâghât, 12 miles below Jabalpur, with eighty-one recesses for the sixty-four Joginîs and their congeners.¹ Both of these are circular enclosures with the shrines ranged round the inside of the walls. The temple itself it is true has gone—if any central structure ever existed—but what we see is probably as old as the 9th century, if not older.²

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² At this place there is a very remarkable and numerous series of temples, unsurveyed as yet, among which is a circular Chausath Joginî temple, about 56 ft. outside diameter.—'Indian Antiquary,' vol. vii. p. 20; 'Survey Reports,' vol. xiii. pp. 132 *et seqq.* and plates 13, 14.

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¹ ‘Survey Reports,’ vol. ix. pp. 60-74, and plates 12-15. The enclosure is 116 ft. diameter inside.

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² It is built of granite, and its plan and the forms of its sikharas, induce me to believe it to be exceptionally old.

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The other exceptional building is one of totally different character, and is as remarkable for its extreme elegance, even at Khajurâho, as the other is for its rudeness. It is called Ghantai, either from the bells sculptured on its pillars, or for some other cause unknown. Unfortunately, it is only a fragment — a skeleton without flesh — a few pillars of a double portico now standing alone without the walls that may once have enclosed them (Woodcut No. 292).

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From the form of several letters in an inscription, found near these ruins, General Cunningham was inclined to believe that this temple may belong to the 6th or 7th century of our era; and from finding a Buddhist statue and a short Buddhist inscription near them, he was at first inclined to assign them to that religion. Later he made excavations on the site and found some eleven figures apparently Digambara Jaina, and two distinctively Vaishnava. Hence he concluded that it must have been a Jaina temple.³ The plan, too, of the building, so far as it can be made out, is unlike anything we know that is Buddhist, but very similar to many that certainly are Jaina.⁴

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³ ‘Archæological Survey Reports,’ vol. ii. p. 431, and vol. x. p. 16.

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⁴ For plans of similar Jaina temples, see ‘Report on Belgâm and Kaladgi,’ plates 2, 10, and 45. These, however, are more modern than this one.

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Be this as it may, these pillars are singularly graceful in their form, and elegant in their details, but they do not belong to the early style to which they were at first ascribed. There are eight of these sandstone shafts, each 14 ft. 6 in. in height. These are arranged in two squares about 15 ft. apart, and between the two are some square pillars and a carved doorway, apparently the entrance to the mandap. On its lintel a four-armed goddess is carved, mounted on a Garuda, and a small nude male in each side niche: these could not have been prepared for a Jaina temple. Then the granite pilasters for the walls are of various lengths, several having one or more blocks added above or below to make up the proper heights, and pointing to a reconstruction.⁵ If it ever were completed the temple would be in plan almost a copy of that of Pârswanâth noticed above, having a porch on the east and a mandapa 21 ft. 6 in. wide, with the second group of four carved columns supporting its roof, and extending to the two square pilasters

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⁵ Le Bon, ‘Les Monuments de l'Inde,’ p. 79, fig. 64; ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ vol. xlviii. pt. i., p. 294.

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292. The Ghantai, Khajurâho. (From a Photograph.)

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now at the west end, which would be on the front of the shrine. And the shrine itself with the pradakshina would occupy about 17 ft. to the west of these pilasters.

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At the south-west corner, near where the shrine would have been, lies a life-sized figure of Âdinâth, and from this, with the Jaina figures excavated by General Cunningham, one of them

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293. Temple at Gyâraspur. (From a Photograph.)

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dated in A.D. 1085, we learn that, late in the 11th century the Jains had the place in possession. But it is also plain that they were reconstructing it of materials from older Hindû structures. And the absence of débris suggests that either the walls and great spire never were constructed or that, at a later date, the entire materials were carefully removed. How long before the 11th century the eight sandstone pillars were first carved we are left without evidence to determine; but there seems no reason for ascribing them to an earlier period than the commencement of the 10th century, and possibly they may be of even somewhat later date.

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There seems very little doubt that more examples of this age and style exist in Rajputana and Central India. At Gyâraspur, 24 miles north-east from Bhilsâ, and 140 miles south-west from this, there is a group of pillars arranged like these and like them deprived of their walls (Woodcut No. 293). In the Mukandwâra pass there is a third example, but of much earlier date.¹ Was it that their walls were of burnt bricks or of small square stones which, being easily removed, were utilised? My impression is, the latter was the case; but be this as it may, these Gyâraspur pillars are possibly also the remains of a Jaina edifice, but of an age considerably more modern than the Ghantai. They can hardly under any circumstances be ascribed to an age anterior to the great revival in the 10th century, and may not improbably belong to the 12th century. In the same town of Gyâraspur is a very grand old temple apparently of about the same age as these pillars. But it has been so ruined and repaired, and almost rebuilt, that it is extremely difficult to say what the form or purpose of the original erection may have been. There is also a toran of great beauty in the village, probably of the 11th century, and in fact throughout this region there are numberless remains which, if scientifically examined, would probably suffice to fill up some of the largest gaps in our history.

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¹ 'Picturesque Illustrations of Indian Architecture,' by the Author, plate 5.

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At Bhangarh, for instance, in the south of the Alwar territory, there are some very beautiful temples in style resembling the Jaina.² One in that neighbourhood photographed by Captain Impey, may belong to the 10th or 11th century, and is as beautiful as any of its class, either at Khajurâho or elsewhere, and near it again is a colossal Jaina image, called Nan Gûngi, some 20 ft. in height, which is apparently of the same age as the temples, and consequently anterior to any of the colossi at Gwâliar or in the south of India.³ The Jain sect are numerous in Rajputana, and though some of their temples have long been neglected and fallen into decay, some of them, being of the best age and unrestored, are of extreme interest to the investigator of Indian art.

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² These are probably Saiva. At Nilkanth (old Râjor), also in the hills of the Tahla pargana of the same state, are some temples of about the 10th century, of great beauty of detail: probably they too are Saiva.

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³ Impey, 'Views in Delhi, Agra, and Rajpootana,' London, 1865, frontispiece and plate 60.

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An important group of ancient temples is reported at Osia, a decayed town about 32 miles north of Jodhpur. Among them is a Jaina temple of considerable size, which an inscription indicates as having been founded originally in the latter part of the 8th century; and the Hindû temples may belong to somewhere about the same period. A careful survey of them might be helpful in settling the age of other monuments by supplying fresh links in the chronometric scale.

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As before mentioned, the Buddhists, though employing circular roofs, and in all ages building topes with domical forms externally, do not seem to have attempted an internal dome, in stone at least. It is a feature of both Hindû and Jaina architecture, and is specially prevalent among the northern Jains, though, why this particular sect should have adopted it, and why they should have persevered in using it through so long a period, are questions we are not yet in a position to answer. It was an essential feature in the architecture of the Moslims before they

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[Figure: Porch of Hindû Temple at Amwâ, near Ajantâ. (From a Photograph by Major Gill.)]

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came into India, and they consequently eagerly seized on the domes of Hindûs and Jains when they first arrived there; and afterwards from them worked out that domical style which is one of the most marked characteristics of their art in India.

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Yet we must not forget that the Hindûs also have shown that they could, and did frequently employ the dome very successfully. Among examples of their use of it few are more pleasing than the little temple at Amwâ or Amvâr, near Ajantâ (Woodcut No. 294). It is only a fragment. The sanctuary with its spire are gone, only the portico remaining; and its roof externally is so ruined, that its design can with difficulty be made out. Yet it stands so well on its stylobate, and the thirty small columns that support the roof externally are so well proportioned and so artistically arranged, as to leave little to be desired.

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The great feature of the interior is a dome 21 ft. in diameter, supported on twelve richly carved pillars, with eight smaller ones interspersed. Like all Indian domes, it is horizontal in construction, and consequently also in ornamentation, but as that is done here, it is as elegant or more so than the ribbed domes of western art. This one is plain in the centre, having no pendant—which, however, is one of the most marked and pleasing features of such domes, as may be gathered from the example in the temple of Vimala at Mount Âbû (Woodcut No. 284 and Plate XIX.). A larger and perhaps better example might be cited in the case of the great sun-temple at Modherâ in Gujarât, when entire, but only the lower courses of its domes now remain.¹

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¹ 'Archæological Survey of Western India,' vol. ix. pp. 75ff. and plates 49, 50.

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One of the most interesting Jaina monuments of the age is the tower, formerly known as Srî Allata's,² which still adorns the head of Chitor (Woodcut No. 295, next page), and is one probably of a great number of similar monuments that may at one time have existed. From their form, however, they are frail, and trees and human violence so easily overthrow them, that we ought not to wonder that so few remain. This one is a singularly elegant specimen of its class, about 75 ft. in height, and adorned with sculpture and mouldings from the base to the summit.³ It stands on a basement 20 ft. square and 9 ft. high, with a stair on the south side, leading to the doorway, which is 6 ft. 2 in. above the platform. The shaft of the tower is 12 ft. 10 in. square below, and is four storeys high to the open canopy of twelve pillars, the floor of which is 64 ft. 2 in. from the ground. An inscription once existed lying near its base, which is said to have given its date as A.D. 895,⁴ though the slab has now been lost. This, however, is much too early a date for the style of the structure; and the discovery of a reference in a manuscript poem of late date ascribing it to Kumârapâla of Gujarât (A.D. 1142-1172), though the style is in no way inconsistent with such a date, as it is unsupported by any nearly contemporary record, is of no historical value.¹ The tower most probably belongs to the 12th century, and, it is said, was dedicated to Âdinâth, the first of the Jaina Tîrthankaras, and nude figures of them are repeated some hundreds of times on the face of the tower, distinguishing it as a Digambara monument, whilst Kumârapâla was a Swetâmbara.²

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² Allata, to whom the erection of this tower was ascribed, ruled between 953 and 972, as we gather from inscriptions, and is the 12th king, mentioned in Tod's Aitpur inscription. — 'Râjasthan,' vol. i. p. 802, Madras ed. p. 706.

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³ 'Picturesque Illustrations of Ancient Architecture in Hindostan,' by the Author, plate 8, p. 38.

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⁴ Tod, 'Râjasthan,' vol. ii. p. 763. (Madras ed. p. 699). This would be before the time of Allata. The tower is also locally known as Kaitan Rânî's—but who she was is unknown.

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¹ This is based on a verse in the 'Srî-Chitrakûtadurga-Mahâvîra-prâsâda - prasasti,' a poetical eulogy of a temple of Mahâvîra at Chitor, and dates at least three centuries later than Kumârapâla's inscription at Chitor of A.D. 1150.—'Epigraphia Indica,' vol. ii. p. 422.

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² The upper portion of this tower had become shaken and one of the balconies had fallen; a fourth of it or 20 ft. has been taken down, and rebuilt with imitations of the old work to replace lost portions.

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295. Jaina Tower at Chitor. (From a Photograph.)

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The temple in the foreground is of a more modern date, being put together partly of fragments of older buildings which have disappeared.

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Most of the buildings above described belong to the first or great age of Jaina architecture, which extended down to about the year 1300, or perhaps a little after that. There seems then to have been a pause, at least in the north of India—caused probably by the devastating raids of 'Alâu-d-dîn and others into Gujarât and Mâlwâ in the end of the 13th century. But a revival took place in the 15th century, especially under the reign of Kumbha, one of the most powerful of the kings of the Mewâr dynasty, whose favourite capital was Chitor. His reign extended from 1428 to 1468, and it is to him that we owe the other of the two towers that still adorn the brow of Chitor. The older one has just been described and illustrated. This one was erected to commemorate his victory over Mahmûd Khaljî of Mâlwâ, in the year 1440.³ It is therefore in Indian phraseology a *Kîrtti* or *Jaya Stambha*, or pillar of victory, like that of Trajan at Rome, but in infinitely better taste as an architectural object than the Roman example, though in sculpture it may be inferior. As will be seen from the next woodcut (No. 296), it stands on a basement, 47 ft. square and 10 ft. high, being nine storeys in height, each of which is distinctly marked on the exterior. A stair in the interior communicates with each, and leads to the two upper storeys, which are open, and more ornamental than those below. It is 30 ft. wide at the base, and 122 ft.

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³ Thomas, 'Pathân Kings of Delhi,' p. 354; Erskine, 'Memoirs of Baber,' p. 385; Stanley Lane-Poole, 'Mediæval India,' p. 174. Previously, in 1418, Kumbha had defeated the armies of Gujarât and Mâlwâ.

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296. Tower of Victory of Kumbha Rânâ at Chitor. (From a Photograph.)

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in height; the whole being covered with architectural ornaments and sculptures of Hindû divinities to such an extent as to leave no plain parts, while at the same time this mass of decoration is kept so subdued, that it in no way interferes either with the outline or the general effect of the pillar.¹

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¹ The dome that now crowns this tower was substituted for an older dome since I sketched it in 1839.

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The Muhammadans, as we shall afterwards see, adopted the plan of erecting towers of victory to commemorate their exploits, but the most direct imitation was by the Chinese, whose nine-storeyed pagodas are almost literal copies of these Indian towers, translated into their own peculiar mode of expression.

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Other examples of this middle style of Jaina architecture are to be found at Pâlitânâ, Girnâr, and all the fashionable tîrthas of the Jains, but they have not been described or illustrated to that extent that enables us always to feel sure that what we see really belongs to this date, and may not be a repair or a modification of some pre-existing building. The Chaumukh — or Fourfaced—at Pâlitânâ seems certainly to have been erected in its present form in 1618, and is a very grand and beautiful example of the style.¹ The temple, too, of Âdîswar Bhagavan, which is the largest single temple on that hill, seems to have assumed its present form in 1530, though parts of it may be older. At least, it is certain that an older temple stood on the spot, though not with the fabulous antiquity ascribed to it by the priests, and credulously repeated by Colonel Tod.²

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¹ Burgess, ‘Satrunjaya,’ p. 20, and photographs 6-12; the plan of this temple is given *ante*, Woodcut No. 278, p. 28.

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² Tod’s ‘Travels in Western India,’ pp. 280, 281.

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Though deficient in the extreme grace and elegance that characterised the earlier examples, those of the middle style are bold and vigorous specimens of the art, and still show an originality and an adherence to the traditions of the style, and a freedom from any admixture of foreign elements, which cannot be predicated of the modern style that succeeded it.³

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³ For Chitor, see ‘Architecture and Scenery in Gujarat and Rajputana,’ pp. 33-35 and plates 19-21; Dr. J. F. Stratton’s ‘Chitor and the Mewar family,’ pp. 76-99; ‘Archæological Survey of India Reports,’ vol. xxiii. pp. 101-124, and plates 20-25; G. Le Bon, ‘Les Monuments de l'Inde,’ pp. 99f. and figs. 99-104; and Workman, ‘Through Town and Jungle in India,’ pp. 305-311.

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MODERN JAINA STYLE.

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Sonâgarh—Jaina Temples at Ahmadâbâd—Delhi—Converted Temples.

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THE two places in northern India where the most modern styles of Jaina architecture can probably be studied to most advantage are Sonâgarh, near Datiâ, in Bundelkhand, and Mukhtagiri, near Gawilgarh, 13 miles north-east of Elichpur in Berâr. The former is a granite hill, covered with large loose masses of primitive rock, among which stand from eighty to one hundred brick temples of various shapes and sizes (Woodcut No. 297, p. 63). So far as can be made out, most of these temples date from the 16th and 17th centuries, though a few of them may be older. Their original foundation may be earlier, but of that we know nothing, no one having yet enlightened us on the subject, nor explained how and when this hill became a sacred mount.

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Like most Hindû buildings of the period, all these temples show very distinctly the immense influence the Muhammadan style of architecture had on that of the native styles at this age. Many of the temples here are surmounted by the bulbous dome of the Mughals. The true native *sikhara* rarely appears, but a modified form of it is prevalent, and the openings almost invariably take the form of the Muhammadan foliated pointed arch. There is every variety of style and form, and generally each stands on a terrace, and is surmounted by one or more spires. The result is picturesque, but not satisfactory when looked closely into, and generally the details want the purity and elegance that characterised the earlier examples. There is not a tree or sign of vegetation to break the solitary appearance of the surrounding landscape.¹

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¹ L. Rousselet, in ‘L’Inde des Rajahs,’ devotes three plates, pp. 396-398, to these temples; also plates 71 and 72 in Sir L. Griffins ‘Famous Temples of Central India.’ On maps this place is sometimes marked as “Sonagir.”

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Mukhtagiri, instead of being situated on a hill, as the tîrthas of the Jains usually are, is in a deep romantic valley, and the largest group of temples is situated on a platform at the foot of a waterfall that thunders down from the height of 60 ft. above them. Like those of Sonâgarh, they are all of the modern domed style, copied from Moslim art, and none of them, so far as can be ascertained from such illustrations as exist, remarkable for beauty of design. It would, however, be difficult to find another place in India where architecture is so happily combined with the beauties of nature, and produces so pleasing an impression on the lover of the picturesque, though nearer acquaintance may result in disappointment to the antiquarian student of the style.¹

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¹ A third notable group of about fifty Jaina temples of modern date exists at Kundalpur in Damoh district, about 64 miles N.N.W. from Jabalpur.—‘Archæological Survey Reports,’ vol. xxi. pp. 166-167.

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297. View of Jaina Temples, Sonâgarh, in Bundelkhand. (From a Photograph.)

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In remote parts of the empire, and especially in the immediate vicinity of the older shrines, this Muhammadan influence was much less felt than in the places just mentioned. The modern temples, for instance, at Pâlitânâ have domes, it is true, but they are much more directly the lineal descendants of the old Jaina domes than copies of those of the Mughals, and the foliated pointed arch rarely occurs in the walls of that temple city. It requires, indeed, a practised eye to discriminate between what is old and what is new, and without the too manifest inferiority of modern sculpture this would not always be easy even to the most accomplished antiquary.

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One example must for the present suffice to show the effect aimed at by this style in recent times, as well as to illustrate how little it has degenerated from its ancient excellence. For, though this woodcut (No. 299) does not prove it, there are photographs which do exhibit the marvellous details of this temple in a manner not to be mistaken. It was erected about sixty years ago by Seth Hathisingh, a rich Jaina merchant, at a cost of about a million rupees, and dedicated to Dharmanâth, the 15th Tîrthankara. In this instance the external porch between two circular towers is of great magnificence and most elaborately ornamented, and leads to an outer court with numerous small shrines all round. In the centre of this is a domed porch of the usual form, with twenty-six pillars (see plan, Woodcut No. 298). This leads to an inner mandap or hall, two storeys in height, and with a roof of a form very fashionable in modern Jaina temples, though by no means remarkable for beauty, and difficult to render intelligible without more illustration than it merits. This leads to a triple sanctuary, marked by three sikharas, or spires, externally. Behind this is a smaller court with two groups of seven shrines, one in each angle, with a larger cell in the centre, and two—still more important, at the point of junction between it and the front court. To the eye of a European, unaccustomed to its forms, some of them may seem strange; but its arrangement, at least, will probably be admitted to be very perfect. Each part goes on increasing in dignity as we approach the sanctuary. The exterior expresses the interior more completely than even a Gothic design; and whether looked at from its courts or from the outside, it possesses variety without confusion, and an appropriateness of every part to the purpose for which it was intended.¹

History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s8: Khajurâho.

Khajurâho.

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