Jainism and Karnataka Culture

SR No.: 011062
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S R Sharma
Publisher: Karnataka Historical Research Society Dharwar
Publication Year: 1940
Total Pages: 263
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 152

114
JAINISM AND KARNÁTÁKA CULTURE
the Jaina caves, a shrine has two round pillars of polished red stone which give a hollow metallic sound when tapped with the fingers.
The plans of these bastis are everywhere the same, with but slight variations according to size. They begin with spacious, well lighted, porches or mandapas-of which there are three in larger temples, ( known respectively as Tirthankara,--Gaddigêand Citra-mantapas ), and two in smaller ones (called Tirthankara, and Namaskāra-mandapas ) --leading to a cell in which the images of one or more Tirthankaras are placed. 149 A special type of the smaller shrines, common in Mysore, is what is called the Trikutācal with three garbhagyhas, three sukhanasis, and a Navarangi or porch. Shrines of this type are taken as good specimens of the Hoysaļa style, two examples of which are : the Jaina basti at Mārkuļi (a small village 3 miles east of Ambuga on the Mysore-Arsikere railway-line) and the Säntinātha temple of Jinanātha-pura (a mile north of Sravana Belgola ). The latter is said to be the most ornate temple in the whole of the Mysore State. 150
Another variety of the smaller temple is that found at Guruvayyanakere in South Kanara. It is a five-pillared shrine, in front of the larger temple to which it belongs. Fergusson has observed that four pillared shrines are not uncommon in the Southern temples, but five pillars is peculiar, and also having access to the upper chambers (which in this case are three in number).161 The Méguti temple at Aiholé, in the Bijāpur District, is also said to be "somewhat peculiar," the shrine being surrounded by eight small rooms (8 ft. wide ) in place of a pradaksina passage.162 But by far the best model of a Jaina temple is that of Caturmukhabasti or the four-faced temple, found at Kārkaļa and
149 Yerg1188on, op. cit., p. 79; cf. Madras Ep. Rep. 1916-17, pp. 113-14. 150 Mysore Archaeological Report 1925, p. 1; Ep. Car. II Introd.,
pp. 32-33. 161 Fergusson, op. cit., p. 79. 159 Ibid.. I, p. 866; f. Havell, Ancient and Mediaeval Architecture of
India, p. 68.