The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c19.24

c19.24

Hiuen Tsang's record of his travels gives us information of the different religious sects existing in Southern India in the seventh century. The Jains were numerous and flourishing, but Buddhism, as a sect, had almost ceased to exist. According to tradition, the Jains are said to have gone south owing to a great famine in Northern India in the first century B.C. The old Jain temple at Aihole has already been described, and also the characteristic roofing of Canarese Jain temples, the form of which was dictated by local climatic reasons. Jainism cannot be said to have created a special architecture of its own, for wherever they went the Jains adopted the local building tradition. In Northern India Jainism followed the Vaishnava cult in building, and their *tîrths*, or places of pilgrimage, were the sacred hills, like Palitâna, Girnâr, Âbû and Pârisnath, upon which they built "cities of the gods" consisting of innumerable temples crowned with the symbol of Vishnu's holy mountain, the sikhara, and grouped together on a regular plan like a village. In Southern India they adopted the "Dravidian" or Siva type of temple; only using the Vishnu symbol in sculpturing colossal images of their Tîrthankaras as Pillars of the Universe. These temples mostly belong to a later chapter of Indian architectural history which does not come within the scope of this book.