Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 19 views

    Temple Cities of The Jains

    Uploaded by

    BHAVYA MEWADA
    The document discusses Jain temple cities, which are mountain sites containing multiple religious buildings. It describes the layout and architecture of two important temple cities, Satrunjaya and Girnar, located in Kathiawar, India. Satrunjaya occupies twin mountain summits and contains the main Chaumukh temple dedicated to Adinath, as well as other shrines, cloisters, and courtyards. Girnar's temple of Neminath stands within a courtyard surrounded by cloisters and cells.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Temple Cities of The Jains

    Uploaded by

    BHAVYA MEWADA
    19 views2 pages
    The document discusses Jain temple cities, which are mountain sites containing multiple religious buildings. It describes the layout and architecture of two important temple cities, Satrunjaya and Girnar, located in Kathiawar, India. Satrunjaya occupies twin mountain summits and contains the main Chaumukh temple dedicated to Adinath, as well as other shrines, cloisters, and courtyards. Girnar's temple of Neminath stands within a courtyard surrounded by cloisters and cells.

    Original Title

    Temple Cities of the Jains

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document discusses Jain temple cities, which are mountain sites containing multiple religious buildings. It describes the layout and architecture of two important temple cities, Satrunjaya and Girnar, located in Kathiawar, India. Satrunjaya occupies twin mountain summits and contains the main Chaumukh temple dedicated to Adinath, as well as other shrines, cloisters, and courtyards. Girnar's temple of Neminath stands within a courtyard surrounded by cloisters and cells.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    19 views2 pages

    Temple Cities of The Jains

    Uploaded by

    BHAVYA MEWADA
    The document discusses Jain temple cities, which are mountain sites containing multiple religious buildings. It describes the layout and architecture of two important temple cities, Satrunjaya and Girnar, located in Kathiawar, India. Satrunjaya occupies twin mountain summits and contains the main Chaumukh temple dedicated to Adinath, as well as other shrines, cloisters, and courtyards. Girnar's temple of Neminath stands within a courtyard surrounded by cloisters and cells.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 2

    TEMPLE CITIES OF THE JAINS

    Although there is no style of architecture in India which can be referred to as Jain, the temples
    belonging to this religion show by their arrangements that they are neither Buddhist or
    Brahmanical, but so designed as to conform to the ritual of the Jains. Mahavira, the last Jain
    leader, is generally regarded as the founder of the creed, though there are 24 of these teachers
    known as Jinas or Tirthankars which literally means leaders or conquerors. It is from this name
    Jina that modern name of the religion Jain is derived.

    Jinas occupy high places in Jain temple & shrines are dedicated to them.

    Whether quarried out of the rock or built of the masonry, the general characteristic of Jain
    architecture has been very similar in style to that of Buddhists & Hindus of the same period &
    same region. But in one aspect the point of departure is that Jains appropriated certain sacred
    sites on the top of the mountains & built their temple cities where there is aggregation of
    number of religious buildings. Most of these temple cities are built after 15 th century.

    Jains had habit of pulling down temples when decayed & erecting new ones in their places
    hence many of the temple walls show evidence of stones of previous structures having been
    built into them. Also to prevent pillage, these religious sites are surrounded by embattled walls
    giving these cities militant appearance & inside there are different wards or tuks like the inner
    courts of the fortified cities. Entry is obtained through strong gateway.

    These temple cities or Tirthas are laid out on no specific plan, the buildings being arranged on
    such leveled spaces as the contours of the hill naturally provide. They consist of several edifices
    but no human habitation except for an occasional watchman, they are at night time totally
    deserted. Central object of pilgrimage is the main shrine dedicated to the Tirthankaras, all
    around it there are subsidiary shrines, double storied imposing pillared cloisters. The variation
    in Jain temple is the Chaumukh or four faced temple having shrine chamber with four doorways
    converting it into cruciform compartment with an opening on each side. This influences the
    shape of the vimana as a whole & accordingly the treatment of the exterior varies.

    Two of the most important temple cities are on mountains in Kathiawar, one being on the
    heights of Shatrunjaya & the other on Girnar. The largest temple city is of Satrunjaya which is
    on the south of the town of Palitana occupying twin mountain summits, 2000’ above sea lvl. All
    the buildings form a letter S. Chaumukh temple of Adinath is at the apex of the northern ridge
    & was built in A.D. 1618 is square in plan having a size of 23’ with 4 requisite entrances. On its
    east side is the assembly hall while 3 other openings have porches leading into surrounding
    courtyards. Above each porch is the second storey with the balconied windows, the whole
    buttressed against the lower part of the spire. Other than this main body of Vimana, there are
    exterior cells screened by pillared verandah.
    Girnar temple city is 100 miles from Satrunjaya & the temple of Neminath is remarkable. It is
    190’X130’, stands in a quandrangular courtyard surrounded by pillared cloisters containing
    more than 70 cells.

    You might also like