Article: Jain temples

Worshippers exit the Ādinātha temple
Image by Christopher Walker © CC BY 2.0

Jain temples of all types are built on platforms or terraces, commonly referred to as jagatī or vedī. The terraces raise the temples above the ground and create a higher, sacred area that is qualitatively different from the lower profane area surrounding it.

Worshippers take off their shoes before climbing up to the sacred temple area. This ascent, however short, is symbolically related to the idea of the difficulties – durlābha – in reaching sacred places. By extension it also suggests the long journey to the remote goal of enlightenment.

On this pronounced plinth, the temple is protected and appears larger and more monumental. The platforms are often much wider than the actual temple structures and thus provide space for the ritual ambulation – pradakṣiṇā – of the building to take place on the sacred level. This spaciousness also allows further shrines, surrounding the temple building, to be at the same level.

This feature became particularly evolved in the Jain temple architecture of north-western India during the medieval age. Lines of subsidiary shrines were interconnected to create protective walls surrounding the outer edge of the terraces. This helped to physically protect the temple structures and shield them from outside view.

Even rock-cut cave temples have platforms, at least at the front entrance.

The terraces are frequently very high, up to three or four metres tall. In many cases the platforms are tall enough to allow separate apartments or lower image-chambers to be created inside.

Walls of a temple compound
Image by Eric.Parker © CC BY-NC 2.0

Almost without exception, Jain temples are enclosed by high compound walls. Those that do not have walls now very likely had them in the past. Known as prākāra, these walls are usually free-standing detached compound walls, encircling the entire sacred temple area.

Certain types of temple have developed these walls to create defensive, strongly inward-looking buildings. The walls have been merged with the facades of the temples in the compound so there are no separate prākāras. This can happen with all types of temples, but is particularly common in havelī temples.

Bhagavati cave temple
Image by Aviatorjk © CC BY-SA 3.0

Jain shrines are introduced in the Āgamas and inscriptions around the third century BCE mention Jain temples and statues but the oldest physical evidence of dedicated places of worship dates back to the first centuries CE.

The Jain Āgamas mention shrines dedicated to the siddhas, called siddhā-yatanas, and to śāśvata-caityas. These are eternal shrines in heavenly places, in which gods and goddesses pay homage to sacred representations of the Jinas. There are also textual references to places of Jain worship in connection with the life of Mahāvīra. The 24th Jina is said to have stayed in caityas or so-called vyantara-āyatana or yakṣa-āyatana shrines while a monk. According to Jain legend, Bharata, the oldest son of Ṛṣabhanātha or Lord Ṛṣabha, was the first human being to construct temples dedicated to the 24 Jinas on earth.

Jain inscriptions from as early as the third century BCE mention Jain statues and temples but do not describe them. The earliest available traces of Jain architecture are caves and stupas. Substantial structural remains of Jain temples survive from the first centuries CE, but complete temple buildings have been preserved from only about the seventh century CE. However, these complex remains indicate that earlier structures, which are now lost, must have existed and served as models for later brick and stone constructions.

Four-faced statue of Neminātha
Image by liketearsintherain – tommy © CC BY-SA 2.0

Jain temple architecture falls into several distinct groups. Especially early Jain structures are often caves. In addition, there are Jain stupas and sacred pavilions housing statues and sanctified foot imprints – pādukās. Most Jain temples in India are made up of one or several shrines and one or a number of halls. This is the maṇḍapa-line type. These temples are highly varied in the vertical and horizontal layouts of shrine rooms. A well-known variant is the so-called ‘four-faced’ temple type, which houses a statue of a Jina made up of four figures. These figures sit or stand back to back and face the four cardinal directions. Locally, they are known as caturmukha temples.

From about the 15th century onwards, Jain temples were often designed around an open courtyard – havelī temples. The hall-type and domestic house temples are a later development. These have been adapted to modern life in cities and reflect changed patterns of pilgrimage. More unusual types of Jain temples are those in the form of tall towers – kīrtti-stambha mandirs – and mythological and cosmological temples, which are closely connected with the distinctive beliefs of the Jain religion. Many Jain families also have private shrines inside their homes.

A well-known characteristic of Jain religious buildings is the ‘temple-city’, in which a large number of separate temples or of walled temple compounds has been built close together. These big complexes can feature all of the different types of Jain temple.

Outside India, Jain temples tend to follow the same characteristic layouts as in India, which can be grouped into the types outlined above.