Sonagir

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This article has been extracted from THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER OF INDIA , 1908. OXFORD, AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

Note: National, provincial and district boundaries have changed considerably since 1908. Typically, old states, ‘divisions’ and districts have been broken into smaller units, and many tahsils upgraded to districts. Some units have since been renamed. Therefore, this article is being posted mainly for its historical value.

Sonagir

Hill in the Datia State, Central India, situated in 25° 44' N. and 78° 25' E., 5 miles from the town of Datia. It consists of a small ridge of gneiss, on the summit and slopes of which more than a hundred Jain temples have been erected. Seen from a distance, the hill presents a picturesque appearance, with its numerous shrines perched amid great crags of granitic rock; but closer examination leads to disillusion. The structures are all of the degraded modern type, none as it stands dating back farther than the end of the seventeenth century. They are all built of brick with inelegant white stucco rect- angular bodies, bulbous ribbed Muhammadan domes, and pine-cone spires, the doors and windows ornamented with the foliated Muham- madan arch and curved Bengali eave and roof. They lack entirely the purity and homogeneity of older temples, and are disappointing.