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Gopachal Parvat Gopachal Rock-Cut Jain Monuments Gopachal Jain Colossi | |
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Religion | |
Affiliation | Jainism |
District | Gwalior |
Deity | Tirthankara |
Location | |
Location | Gwalior Fort |
State | Madhya Pradesh |
Country | India |
Geographic coordinates | 26°12′55.1″N78°10′02.9″E / 26.215306°N 78.167472°E |
Architecture | |
Style | Jainism |
Creator | Tomars |
Date established | 14th century (Kirti Singh Tomar) |
Completed | 15th century (Dungar Singh Tomar) |
The Gopachal Rock-Cut Jain Monuments, or Gopachal Jain Colossi, also called Gop Parvat Jaina Monuments, are a group of gigantic and large proportionate Jain rock-cut carvings dated to between the 14th and 15th centuries. They are located around the walls of the Gwalior Fort, Madhya Pradesh. They depict Tirthankaras in seated Padmasana posture as well as standing Kayotsarga posture, in the typical naked form of Jain iconography.
The number of Jain rock shrines at Gwalior, with numerous monumental statues, is unmatched anywhere else. James Burgess wrote: "In the 15th century, during the reign of the Tomar kings, the Jains seem to have been seized with an uncontrollable impulse to convert the cliff that sustains the fort into a great shrine in honour of their religion, and in a few years excavated the most extensive series of Jaina caves known to exist anywhere." [1]
The Gopachal Jain Collosi is one of the Archaeological Survey of India's Adarsh Smarak Monument along with other monuments in the Gwalior Fort. [2]
The Gopachal rock-cut Jain monuments are located on the rock cliffs of the hill topped by the Gwalior Fort, Madhya Pradesh. Gopgiri or Gop Parvat is the old designation of the Gwalior Fort.
There are five clusters of monuments that surround the hill, as can be seen in the 1901 map. [3] [4]
Alexander Cunningham noted a Jain temple converted into a mosque just north of the Sas-Bahu temples in the fort containing a Jain inscription of AD 1108. [8] Also within the fort there is an abandoned Jain temple which is now within the Scindia School playground and thus no longer accessible. Several large Jain sculptures are placed within the Teli ka Mandir compound.
The Gwalior city and the fort is connected to other Indian cities by major highways NH 44 and 46 (Asian Highway 43 and 47), a railway station and airport (IATA: GWL). It is located near other historic Hindu and Jain temples from the medieval era. [9] [10] [11]
The Gopachal rock-cut monuments are a part of nearly 100 Jain monuments found in and around the Gwalior city, but these are dated earlier than the Siddhachal Caves located about 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) north of these monuments. Both monuments were defaced and desecrated around 1527 when the Emperor Babur ordered their destruction., [12] [13] Quote: "In 1527, the Urvahi Jinas were mutilated by the Mughal emperor Babar, a fact he records in his memoirs". [14] Centuries later, the Jain community restored many of the statues by adding back stucco heads on the top of the damaged idols. [12]
The prolific Apabhramsha author Raidhu was responsible for consecrating many of the Jain rock carved images as attested by multiple inscriptions. [15] These include the two colossal images of Shri Adinatha (57 feet) and Shri Chandraprabhu. [16]
Qutb ud-Din Aibak captured the fort from Pratihara in 1196 and held it until his death in 1210. Altmash captured the fort in 1232 and built the fortifications at the Urvahi gate. The Tomars acquired control in 1394 and held it until 1517.
Mughal Emperor Babur conquered Gwalior in AD 1527. Babar ordered the destruction of the Jain statues, as he mentions in his memoirs. The heads of the statues at Urvahi gate and the Ek Patthat ki Bawadi were damaged. The Urvahi gate sculptures were repaired at some later time by the local Jains. The South-West Group and North West group sculptures survived because they were in inconspicuous and hard to reach places and the Mughals kept control until Muhammad Shah. Scindias, took control in 1731. Shortly before that, Jain temples were constructed again in Gwalior city in 1704, including the Jain Golden Temple, Gwalior. [17]
The Gopachal rock-cut monuments depict the Tirthankaras in seated or standing meditating positions. They are not as colossal as some of those found in the Siddhachal Caves, but they are big. The Gopachal monuments include standing and seated Shri Rishabhanatha (Adinatha), Neminatha, Parshvanatha and Shri Mahavirasvami. [12] [18] [9]
The mulnayak of the complex is a 47 feet (14 m) idol of Parshvanatha, the largest idol of Parshvanatha in lotus position. [19] According to Jains, Tirthankara Parshvanath delivered his discourse (deshna) on this hill.
The nearest airport is Gwalior.
The Dilwara Temples or Delvada Temples are a group of Śvētāmbara Jain temples located about 2+1⁄2 kilometres from the Mount Abu settlement in Sirohi District, Rajasthan's only hill station. The earliest were built by Bhima I and supposedly designed or at least financed by Vastupala, Jain minister of Dholka. They date between the 11th and 16th centuries, forming some of the most famous monuments in the style of Māru-Gurjara architecture, famous for their use of a very pure white marble and intricate marble carvings. They are managed by Seth Shri Kalyanji Anandji Pedhi, Sirohi and are a pilgrimage place for Jains, and a significant general tourist attraction. The Dilwara temples are regarded as the most impressive among Jain temples in Rajasthan.
Kundalpur is a town located in Damoh district in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. Located 37 kilometres northeast of the city of Damoh, Kundalpur is a pilgrimage site for Digambar Jains.
The Fort of Gwalior or the Gwalior Fort is a defence hill fort in Gwalior, India. Mughal Emperor Babur called it the "pearl amongst the fortresses of Hind" because of its impregnability and magnificence and it has also been nicknamed the Gibraltar of India. The history of the fort goes back to the 5th century or perhaps to a period still earlier. The old name of the hill as recorded in ancient Sanskrit inscriptions is Gopgiri. The current structure of the fort has existed at least since the 8th century, and the inscriptions and monuments found within what is now the fort campus indicate that it may have existed as early as the beginning of the 6th century, making it one of India's oldest defence forts still in existence. The modern-day fort, embodying a defensive structure and two palaces was built by the Tomar Rajput ruler Man Singh Tomar. It has witnessed the varying fortunes of the Guptas, the Hunas, the Pratiharas, the Kachhwahas, the Tomaras, the Pathans, the Mughals, the English and the Marathas represented by the powerful Scindia dynasty who have left their landmarks in the various monuments which are still preserved.
Indian rock-cut architecture is more various and found in greater abundance in that country than any other form of rock-cut architecture around the world. Rock-cut architecture is the practice of creating a structure by carving it out of solid natural rock. Rock that is not part of the structure is removed until the only rock left makes up the architectural elements of the excavated interior. Indian rock-cut architecture is mostly religious in nature.
Raidhu was an Apabhramsha poet from Gwalior, and an important figure in the Digambara Jain community. He supervised the pratishtha consecration ceremony of many—perhaps most—of the Jain idols carved on the hill side in the Gwalior Fort during the rule of Tomara rulers Dungarasimha and Kirtisimha.
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Deogarh is a village in Lalitpur district of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located on the right bank of Betwa River and to the west of Lalitpur hills. It is known for Gupta monuments and for many ancient monuments of Jain origins inside and outside the walls of the fort.
Tirumalai (lit. "the holy mountain"; also later Arhasugiri, lit. "the excellent mountain of the Arha[t]"; Tamil Engunavirai-Tirumalai, lit. "the holy mountain of the Arhar" is a Jain temple and cave complex dating from at least the 9th century CE that is located northwest of Polur in Tamil Nadu, southeast India. The complex includes three Jain caves, two Jain temples and a 16.25-foot-high sculpture of Tirthankara Neminatha thought to date from the 12th century CE that is the tallest Jain image in Tamil Nadu. Arahanthgiri Jain Math is also present near Tirumalai complex.
Digambara Jaina Temple is a Jain temple in Bhubaneswar, in the state of Odisha, India. The temple is on the top of Khandagiri hill. This hill is honeycombed with a series of rock-cut Jaina caves, commissioned by King Kharavela in the 1st century BCE. The rock-cut caves are protected by Archaeological Survey of India. The enshrining deities are a series of Jaina tirthankara images.
Uttar Pradesh, a state in north India has a long association with Jainism. Today the state is home to a number of Jain monuments, such as Jain Temples and Jain Tirths. There are around 213,267 Jains in Uttar Pradesh according to the 2011 Census of India.
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Digamber Jain Bada Mandir Hastinapur is a Jain temple complex located in Hastinapur, Uttar Pradesh. It is the oldest Jain temple in Hastinapur dedicated to Shantinatha, the 16th Jain Tirthankara.
The Jain Temple complex is group of 31 Jain temples located at Deogarh in Lalitpur district, Uttar Pradesh built around 8th to 17th century CE. The Jain complex in Deogarh are protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), and managed through its Northern Circle Office located in Lucknow. ASI maintain an archaeological museum at the Deogarh site, which is noted for its treasured archaeological sculptures.
Siddhachal Caves are Jain cave monuments and statues carved into the rock face inside the Urvashi valley of the Gwalior Fort in northern Madhya Pradesh, India. There are the most visited among the five groups of Jain rock carvings on the Gwalior Fort hill. They were built over time starting in the 7th-century, but most are dated to the 15th-century CE. Many of the statues were defaced and destroyed under the orders of the Muslim Emperor Babur of the Mughal dynasty in the 16th century, while a few repaired and restored after the fall of the Mughal dynasty and through the late 19th century.
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