Māru-Gurjara architecture

Māru-Gurjara architecture, Chaulukya style or Solaṅkī style, is a style of north Indian temple architecture that originated in Gujarat and Rajasthan from the 11th to 13th centuries, under the Chaulukya dynasty (or Solaṅkī dynasty).e Maru Gurjara has its genesis in the fact that it was developed under Gurjar kingdoms of Marudesh. Although originating as a regional style in Hindu temple architecture, it became especially popular in Jain temples and, mainly under Jain patronage, later spread across India and to diaspora communities around the world.

On the exteriors, the style is distinguished from other north Indian temple styles of the period in “that the external walls of the temples have been structured by increasing numbers of projections and recesses, accommodating sharply carved statues in niches. These are normally positioned in superimposed registers, above the lower bands of moldings. The latter display continuous lines of horse riders, elephants, and kīrttimukhas. Hardly any segment of the surface is left unadorned.” The main shikhara tower usually has many urushringa subsidiary spirelets on it, and two smaller side-entrances with porches are common in larger temples.

Development

The style developed from that of the dynasties preceding the Solankis, mainly the Gurjara-Pratihara dynasty, and the local dynasties under it. The most famous monuments of this period are the Khajuraho Group of Monuments built under the Chandela dynasty between 950 and 1050. These are famous for their erotic reliefs. Many of the broad features of this earlier style are continued in the Māru-Gurjara style. The beginnings of the new style can be seen in the small Ambika Mata temple in Jagat, Rajasthan. The earliest inscription here records a repair in 961 (well before the Solankis came to power). For George Mitchell, in the Jagat temple (and others he names) “the Pratihara style was fully evolved in its Western Indian expression”.

Early Hindu temples
The Somnath temple, dedicated to Shiva, was the most famous in Gujarat, but was very largely destroyed by the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud in a raid in 1024–1025 CE. It was then rebuilt, but sacked again when the Delhi Sultanate conquered the area at the end of the 13th century. The ruins have recently been restored and rebuilt in what is intended as the Solanki style.

The Sun Temple, Modhera, Gujarat, was built in 1026–27 CE, just after Mahmud’s raid. The shikhara is now missing, but the lower levels are well-preserved, and there is a large stepwell tank of the same period in front of the temple. There is a large detached mandapa between the main sanctuary building and the tank, which is slightly later. The carving of all parts is “extremely luxuriant and exquisitely refined in the rendering of detail”.

The Rudra Mahalaya Temple was a large complex in Siddhpur Gujarat, mostly destroyed under Muslim rule. The main temple was surrounded by a screen of subsidiary shrines (partly surviving as a mosque), and the porches, parts of which remain, and a stand-alone torana were exceptionally grand. The mandapa had three storeys. It was completed in 1140, ending a long period of construction. Two groups of smaller ruined temples of similar date are the two Rama Lakshamana temples, Baradia and the five Kiradu temples; both have their lowest storeys fairly intact, and some of the Kiradu group retain part of their shikharas.

The Rani ki vav (“Queen’s Stepwell”, probably 1063–83) is a very grand stepwell in Patan, Gujarat, once the Chaulukya capital. With a very different architectural form and function, “throughout, the ornamentation of the architectural elements is sumptuous” in the contemporary temple style, including very many Hindu figures. Another non-temple example is the 80 foot Kirti Stambha tower in Chittor Fort, Rajasthan, built for a Jain merchant, mostly in the early 13th century, with the pavilion at the top a 15th-century restoration.

Early Jain temples

The five Dilwara Temples on Mount Abu are among the most famous Jain temples. The Vimal Vasahi is much the earliest, constructed by 1031, with the Luna Vasahi by 1230, and the others at intervals between 1459 and 1582. All are in a very white marble that adds greatly to their effect, and remain in use. The oldest and largest two have large amounts of intricate carving even by the standards of the style, reaching a peak in the Luna Vasahi temple. The main buildings of the first three named are surrounded by “cloister” screens of devakulikā shrines, and are fairly plain on the outer walls of these; in the case of the Vimal Vasahi this screen was a later addition, around the time of the second temple. These three have an axis from the sanctuary through a closed, then an open mandapa to an open rangamandapa, or larger hall for dance or drama. Surrounding the main temple with a curtain of shrines was to become a distinctive feature of the Jain temples of West India, still employed in some modern temples.

The Ajitanatha Temple, the largest and earliest of the cluster of Taranga Jain temples, was constructed in 1161, and is a fine example of the style, which remains largely intact, and in religious use. The shikhara and the much lower superstructure over the mandapa are both among the “most complicated” in the style. The former begins with three rows of bhumija-style miniature towers in clusters, before turning to the sekhari style higher up, where the miniature towers are of varying lengths, and overlap. Over the mandapa, the lowest level continues the regular miniature tower clusters over the sanctuary, above which shallow pitched planes of roof are studded with miniature towers, with rows of beasts and urns along the edges of the planes. The surfaces are heavily decorated with figures and “honeycomb” gavaksha decoration, the figures “characterized by lively poses and sharply cut faces and costumes”.

The Ajitanatha Temple was built under, and very probably by, King Kumarapala (r. 1143 – 1172 CE) of the Solanki/Chaulukya dynasty, who was the most favourable towards Jains of the dynasty. According to Jain sources he converted to Jainism towards the end of his life; at the least he was influenced by the religion. His reign marked the height of Jain power and influence; his son Ajayapala, something of a villain in Jain chronicles, was much less favourable, although there continued to be Jain ministers..

Kumbharia Jain temples is a complex of five Jain temples in Kumbhariya, Banaskantha district built between 1062 – 1231 CE. The five temples are famous for their elaborate architecture.[23] The Jain temples, Kumbhariya along with Dilwara temples, Girnar Jain temples and Taranga Jain temple are considered excellent examples of Chaulukyan architecture.[24] Mahavira, Shantinatha, and Parshvanatha temples are some of the most renowned temples in India.[25] These five marble temples vary in size and architecture details, but every temple is surrounded by a protective walled courtyard with elaborate arched gateways..

The Bhadreshwar Jain Temple, mostly constructed for a merchant in 1248, just at the end of the Solanki dynasty, is surrounded by the high walls of a curtain of subsidiary shrines, each with a shikhara in sekhari style, except for a much later two-storey porch at the entrance, which has elements from Indo-Islamic architecture in the domes and arches. The main temple, in a courtyard considerably above ground level, is comparable to the earlier examples described above.

The clustered group of Girnar Jain temples, with a magnificent mountain-top position, are mostly in the style, with the major temples ranging in date (of basic construction) from 1128, 1231, 1453 and another 15th century example..

Other temples, like the large example at the Rajgadhi Timbo (“mound”), have been completely destroyed.

Later temples

The Solanki dynasty finally fell around 1244, replaced by the Hindu Vaghela dynasty for some decades before the Muslim Delhi Sultanate conquered the region. Temple building then largely ceased in the original areas of the style for a considerable time, although a trickle of repairs and additions to existing temples are recorded, and some small new buildings. However, Solanki rule came to be seen by Jains as something of a “golden age”, and the Māru-Gurjara style evidently became something of a standard for Jains, specifically the Śvetāmbara wing of the religion. The style began to re-appear in Jain temples in the same area in the 15th century, and then spread elsewhere in India, initially moving eastwards.

The Adinatha Ranakpur Jain temple in Rajasthan is a major construction for a merchant, built between 1439 and 1458 or 1496. It is a thorough-going, but not strict, revival of Māru-Gurjara style, on the same broad model as Bhadreshwar, with a high outside wall of the back of shrines, but also a number of Islamic-style corbelled domes. There are four three-storey porches, already up two flights of steps. The interior of the temple is “unsurpassed for its spatial complexity”, with the sanctuary at the centre of the compound surrounded by many mandapas of two or three storeys, with all levels very open between the supporting columns allowing views in several directions inside the compound. Even the shikhara has balconies at three levels. The carving on the interior is in most areas as lavish as ever.

The large group of Palitana temples on the Shatrunjaya hills in Gujarat are another very important Jain pilgrimage site, with temples numbering into the hundreds (most very small, and all but one Svetambara). Though many were founded much earlier, the site was so thoroughly destroyed by Muslim armies, starting in 1311, that there is little surviving that dates back before the 16th century. The temples are packed tightly together in a number of high-walled compounds called “tuks” or “tonks”. Michell calls them “characteristic of the final phase of Western Indian temple architecture”, with traditional shikharas, double storey porches, often on three or four sides, and miniature-urn roofs to the main mandapas. But there are influences from Indo-Islamic architecture in the domes, often fluted, over porches and second mandapas, “arches with petalled fringes, parapets of merlons”, and other features. The Polo Forest in Gujarat has groups of Hindu and Jain ruined temples of various dates, but mostly 15th century.

The Jagdish Temple, Udaipur (completed 1651) is an example of a Hindu temple using the style at a late date; in this case a commission of Jagat Singh I, ruler of Mewar.

Background

The Māru-Gurjara style did not represent a radical break with earlier styles. The previous styles in north-west India are mentioned above, and the group of Jain temples of Khajuraho, forming part of the famous Khajuraho Group of Monuments are very largely in the same style as their Hindu companions, which were mostly built between 950 and 1050. They share many features with the Māru-Gurjara style: high plinths with many decorated bands on the walls, lavish figurative and decorative carving, balconies looking out on multiple sides, ceiling rosettes, and others, but at Khajuraho the great height of the shikharas is given more emphasis. There are similarities with the contemporary Hoysala architecture from much further south. In both of these styles architecture is treated sculpturally.

Notes

1. Julia A. B. Hegewald, Jaina Temple Architecture in India: The Development of a Distinct Language in Space and Ritual, in Monographien zur indischen Archäologie, Kunst und Philologie, vol. 19 (Berlin: Herausgeber Stiftung Ernst Waldschmidt, G+H-Verlag, 2009). 
2. This is argued in detail in a colonial and a modern context in Julia A. B. Hegewald, “Building Citizenship: The Agency of Public Buildings and Urban Planning in the Making of the Indian Citizen,” in Citizenship and the Flow of Ideas in the Era of Globalization: Structure, Agency, and Power, ed. Subrata K. Mitra (New Delhi: Samskriti Publishers, 2012), 291–337.
3. Traditionally, the term “Solaṅkī style” has been used in the literature. See, for example, M. A. Dhaky, “The Chronology of the Solaṅkī Temples of Gujarat,” Madhya Pradesh Itihas Parishad, vol. 3 (1961), 1–83; James C. Harle, The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent, Pelican History of Art (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1986), 239); George Michell, The Penguin Guide to the Monuments of India, Volume I: Buddhist, Jain and Hindu (London: Penguin Books, 1990), 263; George Michell, Hindu Art and Architecture (London: Thames & Hudson, 2000), 98–102); T. Richard Blurton, Hindu Art (London: British Museum Press, 1992), 196–97); and Susan L. Huntington, The Art of Ancient India (1985; repr. New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1993), 483–98. Nowadays, however, in the attempt to avoid dynastic terms, the expression “Māru-Gurjara style” is usually preferred by art historians. This change in terminology appears to have been suggested first by A. Ghosh during a symposium in Delhi in 1967; see Pramod Chandra “The Study of Indian Tempe Architecture,” in Studies in Indian Temple Architecture, ed. Pramod Chandra (New Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1975), 36. Both spellings—Māru-Gurjara and Maru-Gurjara—exist in the literature. For the first spelling, see M. A. Dhaky, “The Jaina Architecture and Iconography in the Vāstu-Śāstras of Western India” and “The Western Indian Jaina Temple,” in Aspects of Jaina Art and Architecture, ed. U. P. Shah and M. A. Dhaky (Ahmedabad: Gujarat State Committee for the Celebration of 2500th Anniversary of Bhagvān Mahāvīra Nirvāṇa, L. D. Institute of Indology, 1975), 13, 325; M. A. Dhaky, “The Genesis and Development of Māru-Gurjara Temple Architecture,” in Studies in Indian Temple Architecture, ed. Pramod Chandra (New Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies, 1975), 114. For the second spelling, see M. A. Dhaky, Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture: North India—Beginnings of Medieval Idiom (c. A.D. 900–1000)(New Delhi: American Institute of Indian Studies and Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, 1998), 283. In actual fact, one should differentiate between three phases: the Mahā-Gurjara style (circa 945 to circa 970) was followed by the Mahā-Maru style (circa 970 to end of century), which then turned into the Māru/Maru-Gurjara style; Dhaky, “Genesis and Development,” 146–64, and Dhaky, Indian Temple Architecture, 283. On the other hand, when referring to the fully fledged northwestern Indian temple style, as a rule, the term Māru/Maru-Gurjara is used; M. A. Dhaky and U. S. Moorti, The Temples in Kumbhāriyā (New Delhi and Ahmedabad: American Institute of Indian Studies and L. D. Institute of Indology, 2001), 43. Interestingly, Solaṅkī style is the term usually employed by Jainas in India and abroad.
4. The “northwestern style” or “northwestern India” refers to the area roughly covered by the modern states of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
5. There is a lot of controversy about the precise dates of Mahāvīra’s life, which is placed either around 549–477 BCE or 472–400 BCE (Dhaky and Moorti, Temples in Kumbhāriyā, 3), or possibly even later (Paul Dundas, The Jains, Library of Religious Beliefs and Practices [London and New York: Routlege, 1992], 21–22, 24).
6. The region was affected by three major Islamic incursions. The first was headed by Maḥmūd of Ghazna in 1025; the second by Sultān Ḳuṭub al-Dīn Aybak in 1197; and the third by Sultān Alāu’d-Dīn Ḵẖaljī of Delhi in 1298; Dhaky, Indian Temple Architecture, 282.
7. In addition to the Gujarati spelling “Caulukya,” one also encounters the more Sanscritic version “Cāḷukya.” The Rājput clan of the Solaṅkīs of Gujarat ruled from about 950 to 1304, although alternative dates of 961 till 1244 have been suggested (Huntington, Art of Ancient India, 483), depending on whether one views the Vāghelās as a continuation of the Solaṅkīs or their successors.
8. Kīrttimukha means “face of glory.” It describes a fearful masque or face, usually represented without a lower jaw and often reproduced above doorways and windows and behind statues. The motif generally has been seen as a symbol of the passing of time.
9. Because of their beauty and intricate nature, ceilings of this kind have been removed from destroyed Jaina temples and inserted in new structures. Particularly well known are those found in early Islamic mosques at Delhi and Ajmer. On this subject, see J. M. Nanavati and M. A. Dhaky, “The Ceilings in the Temples of Gujarat,” special issue, Bulletin of the Baroda Museum and Picture Gallery, vols. 16−17 ( Department of Archaeology, Government of Gujarat, Baroda, 1963).
10. An alternative spelling for padma-śila is padma-śilā (see, e.g., Krishna Deva, “West India: Chalukya Temples,” part 5: “Monuments & Sculpture A.D. 1000 to 1300,” in Jaina Art and Architecture, vol. 2, ed. A. Ghosh (New Delhi: Bharatiya Jnanpith, 1975), 301. Precursors of ceilings with lotus designs can be seen in the early Jaina rock-cut temples dating from the beginning of the ninth century CE, for example, in Ellora.
11. For further information on the vidyā-devīs or mahā-vidyās and their positioning on carved struts in the domed ceilings of Jaina temples, see Hegewald, Jaina Temple Architecture, 108–10.
12. Meghanāda-maṇḍapa means “thunder hall” or “echoing hall.” It is striking that vāstu- or śilpa-śāstra texts from the Solaṅkī period make no direct reference to a maṇḍapa of this name. This may be due to the relatively late introduction of this type of hall. There are fifteenth-century textual references to halls bearing this name. See Dhaky, Western Indian Jaina, 382, 352.
13. In the Mahāvīra temple at Ghanerao, founded in the mid-tenth century, a slightly detached raṅga-maṇḍapa was added at a later stage. A similar case can be found in the Mahāvīra temple at Osian; there, however, the detached open hall was set much farther apart from the original temple structure.
14. The earliest preserved example of such a toraṇa gate, dated by an inscription to 1018, is in the compound of the Mahāvīra temple at Osian. Similar structures, dated to the middle of the eleventh and the middle of the twelfth centuries respectively, have been preserved in the contexts of the Jaina temple at Lodruva in Rajasthan and the Ādinātha temple at Vadnagar in Gujarat. While it is typical for temples built during the reign of the Solaṅkī rulers to have freestanding gateway structures, most gateways in other Jaina temples are associated with protective compound walls and gates. Although the detached Māru-Gurjara toraṇas do not protect temples from the outside, they emphasize the idea of the threshold.
15. The Vāstu-śāstra (circa late eleventh century) and the Vāstu-vidhyā of Viśvakarmā (circa early twelfth century)—both Māru-Gurjara vāstu texts dating from the time of the Solaṅkī rulers—describe and provide essential information on the positioning and proportions of chains of subsidiary shrines. Further information on these texts is provided by Dhaky, Western Indian Jaina; Prabhashankar O. Sompura and M. A. Dhaky, “The Jaina Architecture and Iconography in the Vāstusāstras of Western India,” in Aspects of Jaina Art and Architecture, ed. U. P. Shah and M. A. Dhaky (Ahmedabad: Gujarat State Committee for the Celebration of 2500th Anniversary of Bhagvān Mahāvīra Nirvāṇa and Nivajivan Press), 13−20; and Shantilal Nagar, Iconography of Jaina Deities, 2 vols. (Delhi: B. R. Publishing Corporation, 1999).
16. Mount Ābū is known locally as Ābū Parvata, meaning the hill or mountain of Ābū.
17. Vimala is also referred to as Daṇḍādhina Vimala. The Ādinātha temple was constructed in VS 1088, converted to either 1031 CE or 1032 CE. See the relevant sections in Asim Kumar Chatterjee, A Comprehensive History of Jainism, vol. 2, AD 1000−1600 (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 2000), 2; Harihar Singh, Jaina Temples of Western India, Parshvanath Vidyashram Series 26 (Varanasi: Parshvanath Vidyashram Research Institute, 1982), 186; and Michell, Monuments of India, 274. In addition, Mount Ābū is known as Dilvara (Delvāṛā or Dilvāḍā), a corruption of the words deul (temple) and vāṛā (locality, ward), consequently meaning “place of temples” or “temple city”; D. R. Bhandarkar, “III: Some Temples on Mount Abu,” Rupam: An Illustrated Quarterly Journal of Oriental Art, no. 3 (1920), 14.
18. In Gujarat, prominent religious buildings in all major cities were raided and destroyed in the attacks of 1024–26, 1217, 1297, and 1304. See Bhandarkar , “Some Temples,” 12; Dhaky and Moorti, Temples in Kumbhāriyā, 13.
19. Mount Girnār is also spelled Girṇār.
20. For information on specific rulers and their achievements, see Chatterjee, History of Jainism, vol. 2, 30–38.
21. Kumārapāla remained a devout Hindu but in his later years actively supported the spread of Jainism. Some historians argue that he converted to Jainism and that he aimed to create a model Jaina kingdom; Ganesh Lalwani, Jainism in India (Jaipur: Prakrit Bharati Academy, 1997), 69–70; John Cort, “Who Is a King? Jain Narratives of Kingship in Medieval Western India,” in Open Boundaries: Jaina Communities and Culture in Indian History, ed. John Cort, Sri Garib Dass Oriental Series, no. 250 (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications, Indian Book Centre, 1998), pp. 85–110; Chatterjee, History of Jainism, vol. 2, 11–12; Hegewald, Jaina Temple Architecture, 221.
22. According to the chronicler Merutuṅga, Kumārapāla erected as many as 1,440 temples throughout India; Lalwani, Jainism in India, 71.
23. Other temples might have collapsed due to technical and structural problems and imperfections. Huntington (Art of Ancient India, 483) also points out that marble temples were destroyed as the marble could be calcined into lime.
24. Besides building temples, Kumārapāla is renowned for having cut steps into the rock at Junagadh to improve the pilgrimage route up the sacred hill of Mount Girnār; Dhaky and Moorti, Temples in Kumbhāriyā, 19.
25. Deva, “West India: Chalukya Temples,” 304.
26. For further details on these allegations, see Chatterjee, History of Jainism, vol. 2, 19, and Singh, Jaina Temples, 44.
27. Lalwani, Jainism in India, 58, 73.
28. Information on these temples can be found in Deva, “West India: Chalukya Temples,” 304–5, and Dhaky and Moorti, Temples in Kumbhāriyā, 20.
29. The Neminātha temple is alternatively known as the Lūṇa-vasahī, and the Mallinātha temple variably as the Vastupāla-Tejapāla temple or the Vastupāla-vihara.
30. In addition, the Jaina merchant Jagaḍu is known as Jagaḍuśā or Jagaḍū Śāha.
31. For additional information, refer to Chatterjee, History of Jainism, vol. 2, 28–29, 38–40, and M. C. Joshi, “Monuments & Sculpture A. D. 1300 to 1800: North India,” in Jaina Art and Architecture, vol. 2, published on the occasion of the 2500th Nirvana anniversary of Tirthankara Mahavira (New Delhi: Bharatiya Jnanpith, 1975), 343.
32. This issue is discussed in Joshi, “Monuments & Sculpture,” 339, and Lalwani, Jainism in India, 59, 75.
33. Various spellings are in use for the term tunk, a fortified temple compound. This article uses the most common Hindi spelling, tunk. However, the term is also regularly spelled tuk, tuṅg, ṭuk, ṭuṅk, or ṭoṅk.
34. The question of the concept of the golden age in Asian art has been analyzed in detail; see Julia A. B. Hegewald, ed., In the Shadow of the Golden Age: Art and Identity from Gandhara to the Modern Age, Studies in Asian Art and Culture (SAAC), vol. 1 (Berlin: EB-Verlag, Berlin, 2014), especially “Introduction: Out of the Shadow of the Golden Age,” pp. 31–76. In a Jaina context, this idea also has been closely linked to the Hoysaḷa dynasty and its associated aesthetic style in Karnataka, ranging roughly from the eleventh to thirteenth century; Julia A. B. Hegewald, “Golden Age or Kali-Yuga: The Changing Fortunes of Jaina Art and Identity in Karnataka,” In the Shadow of the Golden Age, 311–46. 
35. Harle, Art and Architecture, 239.
36. Dhaky, Indian Temple Architecture, 117.
37. For a detailed analysis of the rebuilding activities on Mount Śatruñjaya, see Hawon Ku, “Temples and Patrons: The Nineteenth-Century Temple of Motśāh at Śatruñjaya,” International Journal of Jaina Studies 7, no. 2 (2011), 1–22 and her, unfortunately, unpublished PhD dissertation “Re-formation of Identity: The 19th-century Jain Pilgrimage Site of Shatrunjaya, Gujarat” (PhD diss., University of Minnesota, 2007), 287.
38. Definitions and descriptions of these reasonably modern temple types can be found in Hegewald, Jaina Temple Architecture, 142–44.
39. A severe drought affecting the east of India is believed to have led to the migration of large numbers of Jainas away from the region in the third century BCE. In the first centuries CE, interreligious conflict decimated the strength of the community even further, causing again mass migration and leaving a very rudimentary presence in the area from about the third century CE; Maruti Nandan Prasad Tiwary, History of Jainism in Bihar (Gurgaon: Academic Press, 1996), 186. The remaining Jainas were further reduced in numbers between the seventh and thirteenth centuries through incursions of warring factions from the South, the introduction of Islam in the region, the removal of royal patronage, and the cessation of trade connections; Tiwary, History of Jainism, 14–179, 187. A pronounced trend back to the East is noticeable only from the sixteenth century onward. Those Jainas who “returned” to eastern India appear to have been primarily members of the influential western Indian trading families who also migrated to other areas of the subcontinent during the Mughal period.
40. Śvetāmbara Jainas consider Vaishali the birthplace of Mahāvīra, while Digambara Jainas believe this event to have taken place at Kundalpur, located in the same state.
41. Alternatively, the Dādā Bāṛī Jaina temple complex is also known as the Dādā Baṛā.
42. The precise date of completion of the temple, noted down on the building itself, is Samvat 1992.
43. A detailed description of the layout of Jaina temples following the maṇḍapa-line principle can be found in Hegewald, Jaina Temple Architecture, 140–41.
44. The open hall, inserted between the closed hall and the porch, is only one pillar deep and, as such, more part of an extended porch than a proper hall, where devotees can conduct rituals or assemble for communal veneration. In this temple, these additional functions must be accommodated by the larger closed halls. This layout is relatively common in modern temple constructions. A further example, following the same principle—although two side porches have been added—is the Pāraṇā Evam Kalyāṇaka temple at Hastinapur.
45. The dādā-gurus or dādā-guru-devas are the four sanctified medieval teachers of the Śvetāmbara Kharatara Gaccha. Today, the term can be used more generally for any deceased revered teacher of the Jaina faith. For more details on the dādā-gurus, see Lawrence A. Babb, Ascetics and Kings in a Jain Ritual Culture, Lala S. L. Jain Research Series (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1998), 111–26.
46. He is one of the Kharatara Gaccha’s four sanctified medieval teachers (dādā-gurus).
47. It is also common throughout the region to find lotus designs painted onto the domical ceilings of halls. Two clear examples are the Śrī Cintāmaṇī Pārśvanātha Śvetāmbara temple at Hastinapur and the Dharmanātha temple at Ronahi.
48. It is interesting to note that despite the strong western Indian undertones, the highly stylized and mass-produced-looking sculptures adorning the outer sides of the temple are more akin to Chandella sculptural temple decorations than to those in the Māru-Gurjara style. As a result, the temple represents a relatively low-quality replica of a blend of well-known and highly rated artistic styles.
49. These Pārśvanātha images make reference to particularly sacred statues at Ludrava and Shankeshvar, small towns in Rajasthan and Gujarat respectively. See, for instance, the Śrī Ludrava Pārśvanātha Jina Mandir in Sholapur, Maharashtra, which was started by the Śvetāmbara community in 1993.
50. The cult of Nākoḍā Bhairava originates in a small village near Jodhpur in Rajasthan. Images of this manifestation are, for instance, displayed in the Śvetāmbara Jaina temple in Margaon in Goa. Figural representations of this kṣetra-pāla are only portrayed from the head down to the waste, and seem to emerge from a pedestal below; Hegewald, Jaina Temple Architecture, 100–104. See also the study by Knut Aukland, “Understanding Possession in Jainism: A Study of Oracular Possession in Nakoda,” Modern Asian Studies, 47 (2013), 109–34. The veneration of icons connected with a specific sacred place of Śvetāmbara worship in Rajasthan or Gujarat can be associated with the Śvetāmbara community throughout India and abroad.
51. For a discussion of Jaina temple architecture in central India, see Hegewald, Jaina Temple Architecture, 395–473.
52. The large Ādinātha temple at Kulpak reproduces all the hallmarks of the medieval northwestern Indian style. It has a large raṅga-maṇḍapa with a lotus ceiling (but a square rather than an octagonal pillar arrangement), a second shallow open hall, front and side porches with elaborate ceiling panels, multi-lobed cusped flying arches, highly ornate pillars and beams, and buff-colored sandstone as a building material. Only the outside moldings of the temple are less elaborate than those found in the Northwest, and there are no external figural representations. A clearly South Indian feature, which has been combined with predominantly Māru-Gurjara features, is the Drāviḍa temple tower (vimāna) above the triple-sanctuaries.
53. The Vāsupūjyasvāmī temple in Madras is a hybrid construction. It combines elements from the domestic house-type, hall-type, and maṇḍapa-line Jaina temples and has been constructed on two superimposed levels. It is a white marble temple with large numbers of flying arches, profuse ornamentation, and carved lotus ceilings.
54. On domestic house-type Jaina temples, see Hegewald, Jaina Temple Architecture, 144.
55. The Jaina temple in Leicester was the first consecrated Jaina temple in the Western world; see University of Leicester webpage, www2.le.ac.uk/departments/archaeology/research/projects/mapping-faith/faith-trail/jain-centre, accessed on November 13, 2013. Banks has studied the migration of Jainas to Leicester; see Markus Banks, Organizing Jainism in India and England, Oxford Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992).
56. The marble, which unusually is yellow-brown in color, was carved in India and shipped to the United Kingdom.
57. For instance, the first Jaina followers arrived in Leicester in the UK from India, from Kenya and later from Uganda as well. The European Jaina community, the Jain Samaj Europe, was founded in Leicester in 1973; see University of Leicester webpage.
58. A samavasaraṇa is the preaching hall of a Jina, built by the gods to house divinities, men, and animals to listen to the first formalized teaching that a Jina delivers after attaining his enlightenment.
59. An alternative spelling for the name of this temple is Old Caubārā Ḍerā.
60. For a discussion of northwestern Indian vāstu- or śilpa-śāstra texts, see Dhaky, “The Jaina Architecture and Iconography,” 13–19; Dhaky, “Western Indian Jaina Temple,” 125–27, and Hegewald, Jaina Temple Architecture, 151.
61. Other factors that further increased the popularity of the Māru-Gurjara style include the widely noticed reconstruction of the Somanātha temple in Patan (Prabhāsa) in Gujarat (Richard H. Davis, “Reconstructions of Somanātha,” Lives of Indian Images [Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1997], 186–221) and the influence of architects from the Sompura community, such as Prabhashankar O. Sompura (Sompura and Dhaky, “Jaina Architecture and Iconography”), who in a variety of modern śilpa-śāstra texts and their building practice encourage an idealization of the Māru-Gurjara aesthetic. These additional areas merit a closer examination in the future.
62. See, for instance, the Hindu-Jaina temple in London, Ontario, Canada, which is largely Hindu but also houses a statue of Mahāvīra; or the Gītā Bhavan Hindu temple in Manchester, which also contains statues of the Sikh gurus.