Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/107

 CHAP. V. JAINA BASTIS. 79 replace in stone supports which in wood would have appeared necessary to carry a heavy stone roof (Woodcut No. 305). Their plans, as far as can be made out from photographs, are those usual in Jaina temples spacious, well-lighted porches or mandapas of which there are three in the larger temples and two in the smaller leading to a cell in which the images of one or more of the Tirthankaras is placed, naked of course, as the southern Jains belong to the Digambara sect. 1 Their age has been determined from inscriptions, and they date from about the beginning of the I2th century downwards the finest belonging to the I5th century. Besides the greater temples, there are several varieties of smaller ones which seem peculiar to the style such, for instance, as the five -pillared shrine at Guruvayankeri (Woodcut No. 306) belonging to a Jaina temple, in front of which it stands. Four- pillared pavilions are not uncommon in front of Hindu temples in the south. There is a very famous one, for instance, on the opposite shore of India at Mamalla- puram, but not one, that I know of, with five pillars, or with access to the upper chambers. There are three of these upper chambers in this instance the two lower now closed, but apparently originally open, but to what use they were devoted, or what purpose they were intended to subserve, is by 306. Pavilion at Guruvayankeri. (From a Photograph.) no means clear. At the base of the temple are a number of stones bearing images of serpents, probably votive presenta- tions ; there are seven or eight of them, and the serpents them- selves are some with one, others three, five, or seven heads. A third feature, even more characteristic of the style, is found in the tombs of the priests, a large number of which are found in 1 The three mandapas in the larger Bastis are known as the Tirthankara, Gaddige, and Chitra mandapas ; and in the smaller ones, as the Tirthankara and Namaskara mandapas. Dr Hultzsch's ' Epigraphical Report for 1900-1901.'