DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0278
Chap. IV.
MODERN JAINA STYLE.
255
CHAPTER IV.
modern JAINA style.
contests.
.laina Temple, Delhi—Jaina Caves—Converted Mosques.
The two places in northern India where the most modern styles of
Jaina architecture can probably be studied to most advantage are
Sonaghur, near Dutteah, in Bimdelcund, and Muktagiri, near Gawelgbur,
in Berar. The former is a granite hill, covered with large loose masses
of primitive rock, among which stand from eighty to one hundred
temples of various shapes and sizes (Woodcut No. 144, p. 2oG). So far
as can be made out from photographs or drawings,1 not one of these
temples assumed its present form more than one hundred years ago.
Their original foundation may be earlier, but of that we know nothing,
no traveller having yet enlightened us on the subject, nor explained
how and when this hill became a sacred mount.
Like most Hindu buildings of the period, all these temples show
very distinctly the immense influence the Mahomedan style of archi-
tecture had on that of the native styles at this age. Almost all the
temples here are surmounted by the bulbous dome of the Moguls.
The native sikra rarely appears, and the openings almost invariably
take the form of the Mahomedan foliated pointed arch. 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.
Muktagiri, instead of being situated on a hill, as the tirths of
the .Tains usually are, is in a dee]) romantic valley, and the largest
group of temples are situated on a platform at the foot of a waterfall
that thunders down from the height of (50 ft. above them. Like
those of Sonaghur, they are all of the modern domed style, copied
from Moslem 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
1 L. Rousselet, in ' L'lude des Rajahs,'
devotes three plates, pp. 39g-8, to these
temples. I possess several photographs
of them.
MODERN JAINA STYLE.
255
CHAPTER IV.
modern JAINA style.
contests.
.laina Temple, Delhi—Jaina Caves—Converted Mosques.
The two places in northern India where the most modern styles of
Jaina architecture can probably be studied to most advantage are
Sonaghur, near Dutteah, in Bimdelcund, and Muktagiri, near Gawelgbur,
in Berar. The former is a granite hill, covered with large loose masses
of primitive rock, among which stand from eighty to one hundred
temples of various shapes and sizes (Woodcut No. 144, p. 2oG). So far
as can be made out from photographs or drawings,1 not one of these
temples assumed its present form more than one hundred years ago.
Their original foundation may be earlier, but of that we know nothing,
no traveller having yet enlightened us on the subject, nor explained
how and when this hill became a sacred mount.
Like most Hindu buildings of the period, all these temples show
very distinctly the immense influence the Mahomedan style of archi-
tecture had on that of the native styles at this age. Almost all the
temples here are surmounted by the bulbous dome of the Moguls.
The native sikra rarely appears, and the openings almost invariably
take the form of the Mahomedan foliated pointed arch. 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.
Muktagiri, instead of being situated on a hill, as the tirths of
the .Tains usually are, is in a dee]) romantic valley, and the largest
group of temples are situated on a platform at the foot of a waterfall
that thunders down from the height of (50 ft. above them. Like
those of Sonaghur, they are all of the modern domed style, copied
from Moslem 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
1 L. Rousselet, in ' L'lude des Rajahs,'
devotes three plates, pp. 39g-8, to these
temples. I possess several photographs
of them.