Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/27

 CHAP. I. INTRODUCTORY. 7 Jaina saints are represented as naked which, in ancient times, was perhaps the orthodox sect, though the 5wetambaras are clothed much like the Buddhists. When, therefore, a figure of the class is represented as naked it may certainly be assumed to belong to the Digambara sect ; the vSwetambara images have a loin-cloth ; these and other traits, as the attendant Yakshas and Yakshinis carved on the thrones, and the position of the hands, enable us to distinguish between Buddhist and Jaina bas-reliefs and sculptures. Probably all the earlier Jaina caves were excavated for Digambara Jains. 1 It is now quite apparent that, in consequence of our know- ledge of Buddhist architecture being derived almost exclusively from rock-cut examples, we miss a great deal which, if derived from structural buildings, would probably solve this question of early similarity among other problems that perplex us. The same remarks apply equally to the Jaina caves. Those at Udayagiri, Junagadh, Badami, Elura, and Ankai, do not help us in our investigation, because they are not copies of structural buildings, but are rock-cut examples, which had grown up into a style of their own, distinct from that of structural edifices. The earliest hint we get of a twelve-pillared dome, such as those universally used by the Jains, is in a sepulchre at Mylassa in Caria, 2 probably belonging to the 4th century. A second hint is found in the great cave at Bagh (Woodcut No. 1 1 3) in the 6th or 7th century, and there is little doubt that others will be found when looked for but where ? In the valley of the Ganges, and wherever the Muhammadans settled in force, it would be in vain to look for them. These zealots found the slender and elegant pillars, and the richly carved horizontal domes of the Jains, so appropriate and so easily re-arranged for their purposes, that they utilised all they cared not to destroy. The great mosques of Ajmir, Delhi, Kanauj, Dhar, and Ahmadabad, are merely reconstructed temples of the Hindus and Jains. There is, however, nothing in any of them that seems to belong to a very remote period nothing in fact that can be carried back to times long, if at all, anterior to the year 1000. So we must look further for the cause of their loss. As mentioned in the introduction the curtain drops on the 1 In Jaina images the hands are always laid in the lap, the clothing is scanty even on 5wetambara images, and the thrones and attendants differ, whilst the Jinas or Arhats only have cognisances, and the Srivatsa figure on the breast. The figures of Pamvanath are distinguished by snake-hoods over them : and with the Digambaras, Supanrva the seventh Jina has a smaller group of hoods over his head. The -Swetambaras also decorate their images with crowns and ornaments ; the other sect do not. a ' Ancient and Medieval Architecture,' vol. i. p. 371, Woodcut No. 242.