Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/49

 CHAP. III. PALITANA. 27 in elaborate detail and exquisite finish than on great purity or grandeur of conception. All these peculiarities are found in a more marked degree at Palitana than at almost any other known place, and, fortun- ately for the student of the style, extending over a considerable period of time. Some of the temples may be as old as the I ith century, but the Moslim invaders of I4th and i$th centuries made sad havoc of all the older shrines, and we have only fragments of a few of them. 1 In the latter half of the i6th century, however, the Jains obtained tolerance and security, and forthwith began to rebuild their old fanes. From 1500 they are spread pretty evenly over all the intervening period down to the present date. But the largest number and some of the most important were erected within the last seventy years, or within the memory of living men. Fortunately, too, these modern examples by no means disgrace the age in which they are built. Their sculptures are inferior, and some of their details are deficient in meaning and expression ; but, on the whole, they are equal, or nearly so, to the average examples of earlier ages. It is this that makes Satrunjaya one of the most interesting places that can be named for the philosophical student of architectural art, inasmuch as he can there see the various processes by which cathedrals were produced in the Middle Ages, carried on on a larger scale than almost anywhere else, and in a more natural manner. It is by watching the methods still followed in designing buildings in that remote locality that we become aware how it is that the uncultivated Hindu can rise in architecture to a degree of originality and perfection which has not been attained in Europe since the Middle Ages, but which might easily be recovered by following the same processes. Among the Satrunjaya temples there is every variety of form and structure, and a monograph on this group, fully illustrated, would be of great architectural, antiquarian, and mythological interest. 2 The chief temple is that dedicated to Mulanayak Sri Adi^war or Rishabhanath, near the west end of the Tuk occupying the southern ridge. It is described in an inscription at the entrance as " the seventh restoration ' of the temple, carried out in 1530 by Karmasimha, minister to Ratnasimha of Chitor. This " restoration " apparently consisted 1 The Dhundiya or Lumpaka sect (founded in 1451), refuse to worship images, nor allow them or pictures in their Upa^rayas or places of worship, though they revere the Jinas. ' Oriental Christian Spectator,' 1835, p. 295. They are blamed for causing destruction among the iSatrunjaya temples in a feud between them and the Tapagachha Jains. 2 The 5atrunjaya temples were sur- veyed by Mr. Cousens some years ago ; but the results are not yet published.