A Jain temple or Derasar is the place of worship for Jains, the followers of Jainism. Jain architecture is restricted to temples and monasteries, secular Jain buildings reflect the prevailing style of the place and time they were built. Jain temple architecture is close to Hindu temple architecture, in ancient times Buddhist architecture; the same builders and carvers worked for all religions, regional and period styles are similar. For over 1,000 years the basic layout of a Hindu or most Jain temples has consisted of a small garbhagriha or sanctuary for the main murti or cult images, over which the high superstructure rises one or more larger mandapa halls. Māru-Gurjara architecture or the "Solanki style" is, a particular temple style from Gujarat and Rajasthan that originated in both Hindu and Jain temples around 1000, but became enduringly popular with Jain patrons, it has remained in use, in somewhat modified form, to the present day, indeed becoming popular again for some Hindu temples in the last century.

The style is seen in the groups of pilgrimage temples at Dilwara on Mount Abu, Taranga and Palitana. Derasar is a word used for a Jain temple in Gujarat and southern Rajasthan. Basadi is a Jain temple in Karnataka; the word is used in South India. Its historical use in North India is preserved in the names of the Vimala Vasahi and Luna Vasahi temples of Mount Abu; the Sanskrit word is vasati, it implies an institution including residences of scholars attached to the shrine. Temples may be divided into Shikar-bandhi Jain temples, public dedicated temple buildings with a high superstructure a north Indian shikhara tower above the shrine) and the Ghar Jain temple, a private Jain house shrine. A Jain temple, known as a pilgrimage centre is termed a Tirtha; the main image of a Jain temple is known as a mula nayak. A Manastambha is a pillar, constructed in front of Jain temples, it has four'Moortis' i.e. stone figures of the main god of that temple. One facing each direction: North, East and West. Jain temples are built with various architectural designs.

The earliest survivals of Jain architecture are part of the Indian rock-cut architecture tradition shared with Buddhism, by the end of the classical period with Hinduism. Numbers of rock-cut Jain temples and monasteries share a site with those of the other religions, as at Udayagiri, Bava Pyara, Aihole and Kalugumalai; the Ellora Caves are a late site, which contains temples of all three religions, as the earlier Buddhist ones give way to Hindu excavations. There is considerable similarity between the styles of the different religions, but the Jains placed large figures of one or more of the 24 tirthankaras in the open air rather than inside the shrine; these statues began to be large standing nude figures in the kayotsarga meditation position. Examples include the Gopachal rock cut Jain monuments and the Siddhachal Caves, with groups of statues, a number of single figures including the 12th-century Gommateshwara statue, the modern Statue of Vasupujya and, largest of all at 108 feet tall, the Statue of Ahimsa.

In recent times, the use of murti images has become controversial within Jainism, some smaller sects reject them while others are selective in terms of which figures they allow images of. In sects which disapprove of images, the religious buildings are far more simple. Following the regional styles in Hindu temples, Jain temples in North India use the north Indian nagara style, while those in South India use the dravida style, although the north Indian Māru-Gurjara style or Solanki style has made some inroads in the south over the last century or so. For example, the Mel Sithamur Jain Math in Tamil Nadu has a large gopuram tower, similar to those of local Hindu temples. Charactistics of the original Māru-Gurjara style are "the external walls of the temples have been structured by increasing numbers of projections and recesses, accommodating carved statues in niches; these are positioned in superimposed registers, above the lower bands of mouldings. The latter display continuous lines of horse riders, kīrttimukhas.

Hardly any segment of the surface is left unadorned." The main shikhara tower has many urushringa subsidiary spirelets on it, two smaller side-entrances with porches are common in larger temples. With Dilwara in the lead, surrounding the main temple with a curtain of devakulikā shrines, each with a small spire became a distinctive feature of the Jain temples of West India, still employed in some modern temples; these are plain on the outer walls, raised on a high platform, so that the outside of larger temples can resemble a fortress with high walls. However the entrance up high, wide steps, are not designed for actual defence though medieval Muslim armies and others destroyed many Jain temples in the past permanently. Inside the temple, the Māru-Gurjara style features lavish carving on columns and intricately carved rosettes on the ceilings of mandapas, a characteristic form of "flying arch" between columns, which has no structural role, is purely decorative. Most early temples in the style are in various local shades of pink, buff or brown sandstone, but the Dilwara temples are in a pure white marble which lightens the style and has become considered desirable.

While, before British India, large Buddhist or Hindu temples have often been built wit

Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was a German film director and actress. A talented swimmer and artist, she became interested in dancing during her childhood, taking dancing lessons and performing across Europe. After seeing a promotional poster for the 1924 film Der Berg des Schicksals, Riefenstahl was inspired to move into acting. Between 1925 and 1929, she starred in five successful motion pictures. Riefenstahl became one of the few women in Germany to direct a film during the Weimar Period when, in 1932, she decided to try directing with her own film called Das Blaue Licht. In the 1930s, she directed the Nazi propaganda films Triumph des Willens and Olympia, resulting in worldwide attention and acclaim; the movies are considered two of the most effective, technically innovative, propaganda films made. Her involvement in Triumph des Willens, however damaged her career and reputation after the war. Hitler was in close collaboration with Riefenstahl during the production of at least three important Nazi films, they formed a friendly relationship.

Some have argued that Riefenstahl's visions were essential to the carrying out of the mission of the Holocaust. After the war, Riefenstahl was arrested, but classified as being a "fellow traveler" or "Nazi sympathizer" only and was not associated with war crimes. Throughout her life, she denied having known about the Holocaust. Besides directing, Riefenstahl wrote several books on the Nuba people. Riefenstahl died of cancer on 8 September 2003 at the age of 101 and was buried at Munich Waldfriedhof. Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl was born in Berlin on 22 August 1902, her father, Alfred Theodor Paul Riefenstahl, owned a successful heating and ventilation company and wanted his daughter to follow him into the business world. Since Riefenstahl was the only child for several years, Alfred wanted her to carry on the family name and secure the family fortune. However, her mother, Bertha Ida, a part-time seamstress before her marriage, had faith in Riefenstahl and believed that her daughter's future was in show business.

Riefenstahl had a younger brother, killed at the age of 39 on the Eastern Front in Nazi Germany's war against the Soviet Union. Riefenstahl fell in love with the arts in her childhood, she began to write poetry at the age of four. She was athletic, at the age of twelve joined a gymnastics and swimming club, her mother was confident her daughter would grow up to be successful in the field of art and therefore gave her full support, unlike Riefenstahl's father, not interested in his daughter's artistic inclinations. In 1918, when she was 16, Riefenstahl attended a presentation of Snow White which interested her deeply, her father instead wanted to provide his daughter with an education that could lead to a more dignified occupation. His wife, continued to support her daughter's passion. Without her father's knowledge, she enrolled Riefenstahl in dance and ballet classes at the Grimm-Reiter Dance School in Berlin, where she became a star pupil. In the post-war years she was subject of four denazification proceedings, which declared her a Nazi sympathizer but she was never prosecuted.

She was never an official member of the Nazi party but was always seen in association with the propaganda films she made during the Nazi period. Riefenstahl attended dancing academies and became well known for her self-styled interpretive dancing skills, traveling across Europe with Max Reinhardt in a show funded by Jewish producer Harry Sokal. Riefenstahl made 700 Reichsmarks for each performance and was so dedicated to dancing that she gave filmmaking no thought, she began to suffer a series of foot injuries that led to knee surgery that threatened her dancing career. It was while going to a doctor's appointment that she first saw a poster for the 1924 film Der Berg des Schicksals, she became inspired to go into movie making, began visiting the cinema to see films and attended film shows. On one of her adventures, Riefenstahl met Luis Trenker, an actor from Der Berg des Schicksals. At a meeting arranged by her friend Gunther Rahn, she met Arnold Fanck, the director of Der Berg des Schicksals and a pioneer of the mountain film genre.

Fanck was working on a film in Berlin. After Riefenstahl told him how much she admired his work, she convinced him of her acting skill, she persuaded him to feature her in one of his movies. Riefenstahl received a package from Fanck containing the script of the 1926 film Der Heilige Berg, she made a series of films for Fanck, where she learned from him film editing techniques. One of Fanck's films that brought Riefenstahl into the limelight was Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü of 1929, co-directed by G. W. Pabst, her fame spread to countries outside Germany. Riefenstahl produced and directed her own work called Das Blaue Licht in 1932, co-written by Carl Mayer and Béla Balázs; this film won the Silver Medal at the Venice Film Festival, but was not universally well-received, for which Riefenstahl blamed the critics, many of whom were Jewish. Upon its 1938 re-release, the names of Balázs and Sokal, both Jewish, were removed from the credits. In the film, Riefenstahl played an innocent peasant girl, hated by the villagers because they think she is diabolic and cast out.

She is protected by a glowing mountain grotto. According to herself, Riefenstahl received invitations to travel to Hollywood to create f