Jain Temple Architecture
Jain temples are built with various architectural designs. Jain temples in North India are completely different from the Jain temples in South India, which in turn are quite different from Jain temples in West India. There are two type of Jain temples:
- Shikar-bandhi Jain temple(one with the dome) and
- Ghar Jain temple (Home Temple without dome).
All shikar-bandhi Jain temples have many marble pillars which are carved beautifully with Demi god posture. There is always a main deity also known as mulnayak in each derasar. The main part of Jain temple is called "Gambhara" (Garbha Graha) in which there is the stone carved God idol. One is not supposed to enter the Gambhara without taking a bath and without wearing puja (worship) clothes.
A Jain temple which is 100 years old is called a Tirtha.
The main deity of a Jain temple is known as a mula nayak.
A Manastambha (column of honor) is a pillar that is often constructed in front of Jain temples.
Read more about this topic: Jain Temple
Famous quotes containing the words temple and/or architecture:
“After Voltaire: envy is chained to the portico of the temple of glory and can neither enter nor leave.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish. At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.”
—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)