Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/48

 26 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. BOOK V. over five hundred. 1 The number of images of the Tirthan- karas in these temples is very great, and is constantly being augmented ; in 1 889 the number of separate images counted was 6,449 exclusive of smaller ones on slabs. A few watchmen only remain during the night, at the gateways of the Tuks. The priests come up every morning and perform the daily services, and a few attendants keep the place clean, which they do with the most assiduous attention, or feed the sacred pigeons which are the sole denizens of the spot ; but there are no human habitations, properly so called, within the walls. The pilgrim or the stranger ascends in the morning, and returns when he has performed his devotions or satisfied his curiosity. He must not eat or drink, or at least must not cook food, on the sacred hill, and he must not sleep there. It is a city of the gods, and meant for them only, and not intended for the use of mortals. Jaina temples and shrines are, of course, to be found in cities, and where there are a sufficient number of votaries to support a temple, as in other religions ; but, beyond this, the Jains seem, almost more than any sect, to have realised the idea that to build a temple, and to place images in it, was in itself a highly meritorious act, whilst they also share in the merits of its use by their co-religionists. Building a temple is with them a prayer in stone, which they conceive to be eminently duteous and likely to secure them benefits both here and here- after. It is in consequence of the Jains believing to a greater extent than the other Indian sects in the efficacy of temple- building as a means of salvation, that their architectural per- formances bear so much larger a proportion to their numbers than those of other religions. It may also be owing to the fact that nine out of ten, or ninety-nine in a hundred, of the Jaina temples are the gifts of single wealthy individuals of the middle classes, that these buildings generally are small and deficient in that grandeur of proportion that marks the build- ings undertaken by royal command or belonging to important organised communities. It may, however, be also owing to this that their buildings are more elaborately finished than those of more national importance. When a wealthy individual of the class who build these temples desires to spend his money on such an object, he is much more likely to feel pleasure 1 The official inventory, kept in the Bhandar or treasury, gave the number of shrines in 1868 as five hundred and thirteen. A translation of this document was given in the ' Lists of Antiquarian Remains in the Bombay Presidency,' etc. (1885), pp. 188, 193-213 ; but in the 2nd edition (1897) its editor has employed a different arrangement of the temples.