+JAINA STYLE.+ The religion and the architecture of the Jainas so closely resemble those of the Buddhists, that recent authorities are disposed to treat the Jaina style as a mere variation or continuation of the Buddhist. Chronologically they are separated by an interval of some three centuries, _cir._ 650-950 A.D., which have left us almost no monuments of either style. The Jaina is moreover easily distinguished from the Buddhist architecture by the great number and elaborateness of its structural monuments. The multiplication of statues of Tirthankhar in the cells about the temple courts, the exuberance of sculpture, the use of domes built in horizontal courses, and the imitation in stone of wooden braces or struts are among its distinguishing features. [Illustration: FIG. 226.--PORCH OF TEMPLE ON MOUNT ABU.] +JAINA TEMPLES.+ The earliest examples are on +Mount Abu+ in the Indian Desert. Built by Vimalah Sah in 1032, the chief of these consists of a court measuring 140 × 90 feet, surrounded by cells and a double colonnade. In the centre rises the shrine of the god, containing his statue, and terminating in a lofty tower or _sikhra_. An imposing columnar porch, cruciform in plan, precedes this cell (Fig. 226). The intersection of the arms is covered by a dome supported on eight columns with stone brackets or struts. The dome and columns are covered with profuse carving and sculptured figures, and the total effect is one of remarkable dignity and splendor. The temple of +Sadri+ is much more extensive, twenty minor domes and one of larger size forming cruciform porches on all four sides of the central _sikhra_. The cells about the court are each covered by a small _sikhra_, and these, with the twenty-one domes (four of which are built in three stories), all grouped about the central tower and adorned with an astonishing variety of detail, constitute a monument of the first importance. It was built by Khumbo Rana, about 1450. At +Girnar+ are several 12th-century temples with enclosed instead of open vestibules. One of these, that of +Neminatha+, retains intact its court enclosure and cells, which in most other cases have perished. The temple at +Somnath+ resembles it, but is larger; the dome of its porch, 33 feet in diameter, is the largest Jaina dome in India. Other notable temples are at Gwalior, Khajuraho, and Parasnatha. In all the Jaina temples the salient feature is the sikhra or _vimana_. This is a tower of approximately square plan, tapering by a graceful curve toward a peculiar terminal ornament shaped like a flattened melon. Its whole surface is variegated by horizontal bands and vertical breaks, covered with sculpture and carving. Next in importance are the domes, built wholly in horizontal courses and resting on stone lintels carried by bracketed columns. These same traits appear in relatively modern examples, as at Delhi. [Illustration: FIG. 227.--TOWER OF VICTORY, CHITTORE.]