Kahjuraho. Jain Temple: Paravanatha Temple

After studying the numerous examples of both northern and southern architecture in early medieval India, it would be correct to say that the chief characteristic of Indian building was the extensive use of decoration. As H. Zimmer has pointed out, however, the most remarkable examples of the ornate style are not Hindu, but Jaina, especially at the site of Gujarat, a great pilgrimage center, and also at Kahjuraho, which we have previously discussed. If we take the Jaina Temple in our illustration as an example, we may not see much that is different from the complex northern styles also located at Kahjuraho. The distinguishing elements are in terms of degrees rather than pronounced modifications and are, therefore, not immediately striking. This Jaina temple is highly unified, as were the later Kahjuraho types, and its decoration makes use of subtle horizontals and outspoken verticals, just as the Lakshmana Temple or the Chitragupta Hindu Temples had done. Paravanatha and the other Jaina Temples built at about the same time represent the crystallized richness of sculptural art in architecture in the greatest era of Indian national lifetheir differentiating marks are mere refinements, which, in the next decades, are utterly lost to the Moslem invaders and their ruthless iconoclastic practices. On closer examination, we can see that a very rich array of sculptural handling was responsible for the Paravanatha Temple, and that its carving is clear, deeply shadowed and fluid. -- General view. Reign of Dhanga