Temple
In the Deccan, some of the most architecturally important Jain sites can be found in Ellora and Airhole.
In central India, Degaru, Khajuraho, Chancery and Gwalior have some excellent examples of Jain temples.
Karnataka has a rich heritage of Jain shrines and at Shravanabelagola the famous statue of Gomateshwara.
The granite statue of Lord Bhupali which stands eighteen meters or fifty-seven feet high, is the world’s tallest monolithic free-standing structure.
It was commissioned by Camundaraya, the General-in-Chief and Prime Minister of the Ganga Kings of Mysore.
The Jain temples at Mount Abu were constructed by Vimal Shah.
The temple is famous for its unique patterns on every ceiling, and the graceful bracket figures along the domed ceilings.
The great Jain pilgrimage site in the Shatrunjay hills near Palatine in Kathiawar, Gujarat, is imposing with scores of temples clustered together.
. Lalitagiri, Vajragiri and Ratnagiri are the most famous of them.
The port-town of Nagapattinam was also a major Buddhist center right until the Cholla Period.
Jain Architectural Developments
Jains were prolific temple builders like the Hindus, and their sacred shrines and pilgrimage spots are to be found across the length and breadth of India except in the hills.
The oldest Jain pilgrimage sites are to be found in Bihar. The pre-eminent Buddhist site is Bodhgaya. While the bodhi tree is of immense importance, the Mahabodhi Temple in Bodhgaya is an important reminder of the brick work of that time.
The first shrine here, located at the base of the Bodhi tree, is said to have been constructed by King Ashoka.
Many of the sculptures in the niches in the temple are dated to the 8th century Pala Period. The actual Mahabodhi temple itself as it stands now is largely a colonial period reconstruction of the old 7th century design.
The design of the temple is unusual. It is narrow like a nagara temple, but it rises without curving, like a gravida one.
The monastic university of Nalanda is a mahavihara as it is a complex of several monasteries of various sizes.
The foundation of a monastery was laid by Kumargupta I in the 5th century CE; and this was carried forward by the later monarchs.
The sculptural art of Nalanda, in stucco, stone and bronze, developed out of a heavy dependence on the Buddhist Gupta art of Sainath.
The Nalanda sculptures initially depict Buddhist deities of the Mahayana pantheon such as standing Buddhas, bodhisattvas such as Manjushree Kumaran, Avalokiteshvara seated on a lotus and Naga-Nagarjuna.
During the late 11th and 12th centuries, when Nalanda emerged as an important tantric center, the repertoire came to be dominated by Vajrayana deities such as Vajrasharada (a form of Sarasvati) Khasarpana, Avalokiteshvara, etc.
Depictions of crowned Buddhas occur commonly only after the 10th century.
Later other major Buddhist monasteries developed in Odisha. It is, strictly speaking, neither gravida or nagara.
The earliest is probably the Ravenna Paid cave at Airhole which is known for its distinctive sculptural style.
One of the most important sculptures at the site is of Nataraja, surrounded by larger -than-life-size depictions of the saptamatrikas: three to Shiva’s left and four to his right.
The most elaborate of all Chilufya temples at Pattadakal made in the reign of Vikramaditya II (733-44) by his chief queen Loke Mahadevi is Virupaksha temple.
The Hoysaleswara temple (Lord of the Haybales) at Hale bid in Karnataka was built in dark schist stone by the Heysel king in 1150.
Dedicated to Shiva as Nataraja, the Hale bid temple is a double building with a large hall for the mandapa to facilitate music and dance.
Founded in 1336, Vijayanagar, literally ‘city of victory’, attracted a number of international travelers such as the Italian, Niccolo di Conti, the Portuguese Domingo Peas etc. who have left vivid accounts of the city.
In addition, various Sanskrit and Telugu works document the vibrant literary tradition of this kingdom.
Architecturally, Vijayanagar synthesizes the centuries-old Dravidian temple architecture with Islamic styles demonstrated by the neighboring sultanates.
By the late 7th or early 8th century, the ambitious projects at Ellora became even grander.
By about 750 CE, the early western Chilufya control of the Deccan was taken by the Rashtrakutas.
Their greatest achievement in architecture is the Kailash Nath temple at Ellora, a culmination of at least a millennium-long tradition in rock-cut architecture in India.
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