Many
Indians claim that the Dilwara Jain temples of
Mt. Abu are a
more magnificient achievement than the
Taj Mahal
- both were
stunningly ambitious, state-sponsored, multi-year,
monumental, marble-work projects - but the claim is an
imponderable to me. One difference, however, springs to
mind: while thousands of art lovers and devotees also
worked for a generation on each of the two Dilwara
temples, the Taj, proof of an emperor's inability to
rationally accept his lover's death, was built largely
by hired men. I can understand a man's desire for a
memorial to his lover; I also believe that a modest
memorial need not be any less meaningful, but no, size
clearly mattered to Shah Jehan. He had to divert
enormous resources of state to fund his absurd private
infatuation.
While I think the Taj is
rather sublime
- I am awed by its
beauty each time I visit
- the so-called "romance of its inspiration" bugs me. For
the untold thousands who labored on it, Shah Jehan
didn't even have the magnanimity to dedicate the Taj to,
say, "all the lovers of Hindustan," or something
similarly inclusive. The poet Sahir Ludhianvi, speaking
for the masses, famously
said of the Taj: "Ik
shahanshah ney daulat ka sahaara ley kar / Ham ghareebon
kee mohabbat ka uraaya hai mazaaq" (An emperor relying
so on his wealth / Has ridiculed the loves of the poor
like us). On the
other hand, the Dilwara temples, built half a millennium
before the Taj, seem to me expressions of a fairly
democratic religiosity.
The temples lie a
few miles from Mt.
Abu, a picturesque
hill resort centered
on Nakki lake, atop
an isolated feature
of the Aravali Range
in southern Rajasthan. Mt.
Abu was once the HQ
of the British
Rajputana States
Agency. If you read
Hindi, check out the
local rendition at a
traffic square of
the famous lines
from Frost's Stopping by Woods on
a Snowy Evening.
The two main temples at Dilwara,
built in the northern Nagara style (as opposed to the southern Dravidian
style), are the Vimala Vasahi temple (1031 CE) and Tejpal temple (1200
CE), known for the audacity and the delicacy of their rich marble-work.
Unlike most other Indian temples, their exterior is starkly plain; it is
the interior that is far more magnificent, especially the breathtaking
chandelier-like marble ceilings and ornately carved brackets and pillars.
The two temples were commissioned by the
Solankis of Gujarat (a
branch of the Chalukyas of southern and western India) and one of their
former feudatories, the
Vaghelas, respectively. Sadly, photography at this exquisite global
cultural heritage site was banned in 1992 for reasons that no one at the
temples is willing to articulate clearly (why not allow it for a fee
during a designated visiting hour at the least? ). Orders, say the
orderlies, issue from a managing trust, one that seems to me dominated by
conservative and obscurantist Jain elders who, in their infinite and
timeless wisdom, also deem it proper to
bar menstruating women from entering the temple precincts (enforcing
this is fortunately not easy - I looked around but saw no sniffer dogs ;-). |