Māru-Gurjara architecture
The main shikhara tower usually has many urushringa subsidiary spirelets on it, and two smaller side-entrances with porches are common in larger temples.
In particular, Jain temples often have small low domes carved on the inside with a highly intricate rosette design.
Another distinctive feature is "flying" arch-like elements between pillars, touching the horizontal beam above in the centre, and elaborately carved.
[5] The style mostly fell from use in Hindu temples in its original regions by the 13th century, especially as the area had fallen to the Muslim Delhi Sultanate by 1298.
[10] She notes that the change was an "attempt to avoid dynastic terms", and that both "Māru-Gurjara" and "Maru-Gurjara" are used by different writers, and that the Jain community mostly continues to call the style "Solanki".
[12] For George Mitchell, in the Jagat temple (and others he names) "the Pratihara style was fully evolved in its Western Indian expression".
[13] The Somnath temple, dedicated to Shiva, was the most famous in Gujarat, but was very largely destroyed by the Ghaznavid ruler Mahmud in a raid in 1024–1025 CE.
The shikhara is now missing, but the lower levels are well-preserved, and there is a large stepwell tank of the same period in front of the temple.
Another non-temple example is the 80 foot Kirti Stambha tower in Chittor Fort, Rajasthan, built for a Jain merchant, mostly in the early 13th century, with the pavilion at the top a 15th-century restoration.
The oldest and largest two have large amounts of intricate carving even by the standards of the style, reaching a peak in the Luna Vasahi temple.
[26] The Bhadreshwar Jain Temple, mostly constructed for a merchant in 1248, just at the end of the Solanki dynasty, is surrounded by the high walls of a curtain of subsidiary shrines, each with a shikhara in sekhari style, except for a much later two-storey porch at the entrance, which has elements from Indo-Islamic architecture in the domes and arches.
The style began to re-appear in Jain temples in the same area in the 15th century, and then spread elsewhere in India, initially moving eastwards.
It is a thorough-going, but not strict, revival of Māru-Gurjara style, on the same broad model as Bhadreshwar, with a high outside wall of the back of shrines, but also a number of Islamic-style corbelled domes.
Though many were founded much earlier, the site was so thoroughly destroyed by Muslim armies, starting in 1311, that there is little surviving that dates back before the 16th century.
Michell calls them "characteristic of the final phase of Western Indian temple architecture", with traditional shikharas, double storey porches, often on three or four sides, and miniature-urn roofs to the main mandapas.
But there are influences from Indo-Islamic architecture in the domes, often fluted, over porches and second mandapas, "arches with petalled fringes, parapets of merlons", and other features.
[31] The Polo Forest in Gujarat has groups of Hindu and Jain ruined temples of various dates, but mostly 15th century.
The large Anandji Kalyanji Trust, which devotes itself to temple-building and renovation, has played a role in promoting the Māru-Gurjara style, at Palitana in particular.
Generally, where there is elaborate carving, often still done by craftsmen from Gujarat or Rajasthan, this has more ornamental and decorative work than small figures.
A similar mix is seen in many modern Hindu temples in India and abroad, for example those of the Swaminarayan sect, or the Prem Mandir, Vrindavan near Mathura (built 2001-2011).
Sometimes the Māru-Gurjara influence is limited to the "flying arches" and mandapa ceiling rosettes, and a preference for white marble.
