Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/90

 62 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. BOOK V. CHAPTER IV. MODERN JAINA STYLE. CONTENTS. Sonagarh Jaina Temples at Ahmadabad Delhi Converted Temples. THE two places in northern India where the most modern styles of Jaina architecture can probably be studied to most advantage are Sonagarh, near Datia, in Bundelkhand, and Mukhtagiri, near Gawilgarh, 13 miles north-east of Elichpur in Berar. The former is a granite hill, covered with large loose masses of primitive rock, among which stand from eighty to one hundred brick temples of various shapes and sizes (Woodcut No. 297, p. 63). So far as can be made out, most of these temples date from the i6th and i/th centuries, though a few of them may be older. Their original foundation may be earlier, but of that we know nothing, no one having yet enlightened us on the subject, nor explained how and when this hill became a sacred mount. Like most Hindu buildings of the period, all these temples show very distinctly the immense influence the Muhammadan style of architecture had on that of the native styles at this age. Many of the temples here are surmounted by the bulbous dome of the Mughals. The true native jikhara rarely appears, but a modified form of it is prevalent, and the openings almost invariably take the form of the Muhammadan foliated pointed arch. There is every variety of style and form, and generally each stands on a terrace, and is surmounted by one or more spires. The result is picturesque, but not satisfactory when looked closely into, and generally the details want the purity and elegance that characterised the earlier examples. There is not a tree or sign of vegetation to break the solitary appearance of the surrounding landscape. 1 Mukhtagiri, instead of being situated on a hill, as the tirthas of the Jains usually are, is in a deep romantic valley, and the largest group of temples is situated on a platform at the foot of 1 L. Rousselet, in 'L'Inde des Rajahs,' devotes three plates, pp. 396-398, to these temples ; also plates 71 and 72 in Sir L. Griffins ' Famous Temples of Central India.' On maps this place is some- times marked as "Sonagir."