DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27192#0096
68
JAINA ARCHITECTURE.
Book V.
certainly of its age. The weak part of the composition is
the dome. It is elegant, but too conventional. It no longer
has any constructive propriety, but has become a mere orna-
ment. It is not difficult,- however, to see why natives should
admire and adopt it. When the eyes of a nation have been
educated by a gradual succession of changes in any architectural
object, persevered in through five or six centuries, the taste
becomes so accustomed to believe the last fashion to be the
best, the change has been so gradual, that people forget how
far they are straying from the true path. The European, who
has not been so educated, sees only the result, without having
followed the steps by which it has been so reached, and is
shocked to find how far it has deviated from the form of a
true dome of construction, and, finding it also unfamiliar,
condemns it. So, indeed, it is with nine-tenths of the ornaments
of Hindu architecture. Few among us are aware how much
education has had to do with their admiration of classical or
mediaeval art, and few, consequently, perceive how much their
condemnation of Indian forms arises from this very want of
gradual and appropriate education.
Converted Temples.
Another form in which we can study the architecture of
the Jains in the north of India is the courtyards of the early
mosques which the Muhammadans erected on their first entry
into India. So essentially do some of these retain their former
features that it might be convenient to describe them here. It
is doubtful, however, in some instances whether the pillars are—
some or all of them—in their original position, or to what
extent they have been altered or eked out by the conquerors.
Be this as it may, for our present purposes the one fact that
is certain is, that none of them are now Jaina temples. All
are Muhammadan mosques, and it will, therefore, be more
logical, as well as more convenient, to group them with the
latter rather than with the former class of buildings.
Were it not for this, the Arhai-din-ka Jhompra, at Ajmir—so
called—might be, and has been, described as a Jaina temple:1
it was probably built on the site and with the materials of
Brahmanical ones. So might a great part of the mosque at
the Qutb, near Delhi. That at Ivanauj, however, was originally a
rearrangement, and has been much altered since I knew it;
that at Dhar, near Mandu, is of comparatively recent date;
while the Hindu and Jaina pillars, so frequently used at
1 Tod’s ‘ Rajasthan,’ vol. i. p. 778, and plate facing it.
JAINA ARCHITECTURE.
Book V.
certainly of its age. The weak part of the composition is
the dome. It is elegant, but too conventional. It no longer
has any constructive propriety, but has become a mere orna-
ment. It is not difficult,- however, to see why natives should
admire and adopt it. When the eyes of a nation have been
educated by a gradual succession of changes in any architectural
object, persevered in through five or six centuries, the taste
becomes so accustomed to believe the last fashion to be the
best, the change has been so gradual, that people forget how
far they are straying from the true path. The European, who
has not been so educated, sees only the result, without having
followed the steps by which it has been so reached, and is
shocked to find how far it has deviated from the form of a
true dome of construction, and, finding it also unfamiliar,
condemns it. So, indeed, it is with nine-tenths of the ornaments
of Hindu architecture. Few among us are aware how much
education has had to do with their admiration of classical or
mediaeval art, and few, consequently, perceive how much their
condemnation of Indian forms arises from this very want of
gradual and appropriate education.
Converted Temples.
Another form in which we can study the architecture of
the Jains in the north of India is the courtyards of the early
mosques which the Muhammadans erected on their first entry
into India. So essentially do some of these retain their former
features that it might be convenient to describe them here. It
is doubtful, however, in some instances whether the pillars are—
some or all of them—in their original position, or to what
extent they have been altered or eked out by the conquerors.
Be this as it may, for our present purposes the one fact that
is certain is, that none of them are now Jaina temples. All
are Muhammadan mosques, and it will, therefore, be more
logical, as well as more convenient, to group them with the
latter rather than with the former class of buildings.
Were it not for this, the Arhai-din-ka Jhompra, at Ajmir—so
called—might be, and has been, described as a Jaina temple:1
it was probably built on the site and with the materials of
Brahmanical ones. So might a great part of the mosque at
the Qutb, near Delhi. That at Ivanauj, however, was originally a
rearrangement, and has been much altered since I knew it;
that at Dhar, near Mandu, is of comparatively recent date;
while the Hindu and Jaina pillars, so frequently used at
1 Tod’s ‘ Rajasthan,’ vol. i. p. 778, and plate facing it.