A Jain place of worship is also noted for its rich materials (often marble), as well as the profusion of ornamentation which decorates the structure. The major difference is the construction of ‘temple-cities’ by the Jains as opposed to solitary Hindu temples which are the norm rather than the exception. While initially Jain architecture copied Buddhist and Hindu styles, they soon came to evolve a distinct identity of their own. Apart from this, there are also temples in Ahmedabad and more modern ones in and around Delhi. The major sites for ancient and medieval Jain temple architecture are at Mount Abu in Rajasthan and at Sravanabelagola in the south of India. ![]() While its temples are based originally on the Hindu temple plan, the difference lies in the deities placed inside, Jainism preferring to situate images of the tirthankaras within the precincts of the temple. The architecture of Jainism, however, is less easy to define. Indeed, one of Jainism’s central tenets, the principle of ‘ Anantekavada’ or ‘many truths’, meshed well with Hinduism’s ‘polymorphous’ character and thus the two religions never came into open conflict but co-existed well with each other. While Buddhism went on to become a major religion across much of Asia, Jainism stayed close to its roots and flowered in the fertile soil of the Indian subcontinent’s intellectual and cultural ferment of the time. ![]() It was to challenge this stratification that two of the world’s major religions, Buddhism and Jainism, took root in north India in the 5th century BC. Once the Indo-Aryans had settled in India, and produced the corpus of works collectively known as the Vedas and Puranas, we witness a slow stratification of religion in the Indian subcontinent.
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