DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27192#0071
44
JAINA ARCHITECTURE.
Book V.
there are—or rather were, till about twenty-five years ago—
extensive remains of Jaina and Hindu temples of the same
age and style as those on the mount, some of them probably
more modern, but still all of the best age. The place, however,
was destroyed at the time of the Muhammadan conquest in
the middle of the 14th century, and has since remained wholly
deserted. It has in consequence been used as a quarry by
the neighbouring towns and villages, so that none of its buildings
now remain. The fragment, however, preserved in Colonel
Tod’s work and shown in Woodcut No. 287, but now destroyed,
may serve to illustrate the style in which they were erected, but
no two pillars were exactly alike ; it would have required
hundreds to represent their infinite variety of detail.
ParasnAth.
The highest point of the Bengal range of hills, south of
Rajmahal, has characteristically been appropriated by the Jains
as one of their most favourite Tirthas. They name it Parasnath
and Samet Nikhar, and no less than nineteen of their twenty-
four Tirthankaras are said to have died there, or rather “ attained
to Moksha ”—blessedness—among others Panywanath, the last
but one, and he consequently gave to the hill the name it now
bears.
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 Pala 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 Naiva 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
13.C. Bihar 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
JAINA ARCHITECTURE.
Book V.
there are—or rather were, till about twenty-five years ago—
extensive remains of Jaina and Hindu temples of the same
age and style as those on the mount, some of them probably
more modern, but still all of the best age. The place, however,
was destroyed at the time of the Muhammadan conquest in
the middle of the 14th century, and has since remained wholly
deserted. It has in consequence been used as a quarry by
the neighbouring towns and villages, so that none of its buildings
now remain. The fragment, however, preserved in Colonel
Tod’s work and shown in Woodcut No. 287, but now destroyed,
may serve to illustrate the style in which they were erected, but
no two pillars were exactly alike ; it would have required
hundreds to represent their infinite variety of detail.
ParasnAth.
The highest point of the Bengal range of hills, south of
Rajmahal, has characteristically been appropriated by the Jains
as one of their most favourite Tirthas. They name it Parasnath
and Samet Nikhar, and no less than nineteen of their twenty-
four Tirthankaras are said to have died there, or rather “ attained
to Moksha ”—blessedness—among others Panywanath, the last
but one, and he consequently gave to the hill the name it now
bears.
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 Pala 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 Naiva 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
13.C. Bihar 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