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THE VIMALA PERIOD SCULPTURES IN VIMALA-V ASAHI
M. A. Dhaky
The Vimala-vasahi and its ornate marble interior are sufficiently famous to warrant omission of a eulogistic preamble. The vasati's history, chronology, and achitectural description I have dealt with at length in earlier publications, though up to a relevant point a succinct recapitulation with a few minor modifications to my earlier conclusions I will include in the present discussion.
In c. A. D. 1030 or perhaps a few years before that date, Jaina Vimala of the Prāgavāța caste of the vaisyas of Bhillamāla' had been appointed dandanāyaka, political and military agent-resident at Candrāvati (capital of the Paramāras of Arbudamandala or Ābū) by king Bhimadeva I of the Solankis or Caulukyas of Anhillapāțaka. Vimala eventually founded the temple for Jina Rşabha at the village Deülavādāgrāma' sited on a low eminence on the plateau Mt. Ābū.
As the later prabandhas narrate, he had difficulty in getting land for his temple from the Sivaite owners whom he apparently had to pay high price in bargains. The cult image of this temple was consecrated by Vardhamāna sūri of Candragacchae in V. S. 1088/A. D. 1032 as reliable medieval literary sources report?. A few posterior Solanki inscriptions inside the building attest to Vimala's authorship of the temple
Vimala's building, however, was modesť in size and meagrely ornamented. The architect he employed had used the local dark stone of questionable quality, instead of the elegant marble of Candrāvati or Ārāsaņa, apparently for want of funds or due to the still undeveloped transportation facilities to lift and move the heavy material up on the mountain-plateau from the quarries of Ārāsaņa". The dark mülaprāsāda (sancturay) is above 25 ft. in width, having a few shallow angaproliferations on plan and a meagrely moulded elevation. The superstructure is a low tiered pyramidal roof, its height restricted by the fact of its shallow foundations since the building perches on bare, possibly partially prepared, flat, rock surface that gently sloped toward the east. The gūdhamandapa (closed hall) conjoined to the mūlaprāsāda is and, to all seeming, there was an original open trika, or mukhamandapa (pillared portico), to front the closed hall in the design of Vimala's foundation.
The building possibly was surrounded by a prākāra-wall presumably with an unpretentious gate at the east. A few, small, free-standing devakulikā-chapels may within decades have been added to in the courtyard along the northern and southern flanks11. But the major addition to the complex, as one of the prabandhas relates12, was made by Cāhilla, a brother (or rather son) of Vimala13, of a
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The Vimala Sculptures in Vimala-Vasahi
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rangamandapa, or columnar hall, a mukhacatuṣki to the prākāra as eastern entrance, a hastisālā (elephant court) facing this east porch of the prākāra, and a torana set up very close to the eastern opening of the former court, all (like the original portions of the Vimala's building) constructed in black stone:14 This Cahilla may be identified with the mahāsāndhivigrahika Câhila figuring in the Caulukya Karnadeva's charter of S. 1146/A. D. 1090 granted to the Jaina temple at Tākovill. The dullness of the plain black stone interior of Vimala's original building can be imagined. When, in the 12th century, the Solanki empire of Gujarāt reached the zenith of its power, Pșthvipāla, a minister of emperor Kumārapāla and also descendent of the Vimala's family,--he being Vimala's great grand nephew,--not only replaced the original Trika or mukhamand apa as well as the rangamandapa of black stone by two magnificent new marble halls, but also planned completely to enclose the entire central complex by a surround of devakulikās-chapels with a colonnaded patțaśālā cloister, all done in glistening marble. The larger part of these additions were built by the munificence of Prthvipāla and subsequently by his son Dhanapāla. The main refurbishment programme had started c. 1144 and completed c. 1150, though the devakulikās were continued to be added till c. A. D. 1189.
Almost the total splendour of the Vimala-vasahi's interior thus owes to Prthvipāla, Dhanapāla (and, to a smaller extent to a few other donors, like their distant cousins Hemarathi and Dasaratha, and Minister Yasovira of Jābālipura, and a few others from the lay followers Svetāmbara sect.) The question is whether there exist any sculpture of interest and of worthiness inside this temple complex which could date from Vimala period. My four exploratory visits to this temple undertaken between 1959 and 1975 helped locating at least six images which, judging by their style, can definitely be ascribed to Vimala's times.
The otherwise undecorated prāsāda-walls, which very largely are of Vimala's period, still possesses three Jina images in marble (Plates 1-3), one each in the bhadra-khattaka, are stylistically of the early 11th century and hence they conceivably are of Vimala's times. Excepting in the southern bhadra-khattaka where the bimba or image proper seems of the restoration period (c. A. D. 1322), the rest is all original, and thus pertain to the original foundation. With minor differences in rendering, the details of the lion throne and the ornamental parikara-frame in each case of the three examples are identical. The simhāśana shows Sarvānubhūti and Ambikā at the extremities, and next the lions, the elephants and the edgewise dharmacakra flanked by dears. The parikara in each instance contains two handsomely flexured cāmara-bearers, the Hiraṇyendra pair on elephant-backs, the māladharas, the souring adorent vidyadharas and, at the apex, a śankhapāla or conch-blowing figure. The Sarvānubhūti-Ambikā pair is rarely encountered after the 11th cent. A. D. The typical suave flexure of the camaradharas and the
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characteristic grouping of the deeply undercut celestials above, the lotus aureole behind the Jina's head, and the edge-wise dharmacakra are features commonly met with in the elaborate Jina images of the second quarter of the 11th cent. A. D..
Similar elements, the general manner of composition, and the qualitative excellence image surrounds are noticeable in two contemporaneous larger images in marble (brought from some unrecorded site) now under worship in the Jaina temple at Beda (situated northeast of Mt. Abū) may be illustrated here by way of comparison (Plates 4 and 5). In these two almost identical examples, the dharmacakra is disposed face-wise; and a triple umbrella is additionally shown since the images are sufficiently large to accommodate that mahāprātihārya or glory-feature. Stylistically, the images may date from c. middle of the 11th cent. A. D.
The small differences seen in the two Beļā images may be explained by another image in the same group which stylistically precedes in time even to the Vimala vasahi examples (Plate 6). The image seemingly belongs to the earlier part of the 10th century. The compositional elements are grouped with more space between the postures, though formal, are more animated. The overall mannerism of the composition reveals different graphics, of the tradition of paintings to be precise. The image being larger than all the preceding shown her, could also include a female attendant beside the two male câmara-bearers. All these attendants are provided with plain oblong haloes, a reminiscence of the pre-medieval traditions.
A still earlier image with conventions ancestral to these all is the marble Jina image inside Brahmāņa (Varman)'s Jaina temple (Plate 7), the image, like the older parts of the temple, stylistically may be dated to c. late 9th cent. A. D. Hiranyendras and the sakhapāla are absent since it is an early sculpture. The cāmarabearers, particularly the right one of the two, has body flexure even more graceful than all previously discussed. This Brahmāņa image represents the pure Gurjaradeśa tradition, the other images incorporate a few Maru elements and mannerism in their shaping.
One of the devakulikā chapel at the south-eastern corner of the Vimala vasahi temple contains three images of Yakşi Ambikā, the two smaller at the flank of the middle large one are more ancient. One of them (Plate 8) has padmaprabhā-aureole, in the other one the lotus petals of the prabhā behave like flames (Plate 9). Not only the style of the aureole but also the style of the dhammila-crowns of the two examples is seldom met with after A. D. 1040; it is ubiquitous in the latter half of the tenth century in all Mahā-Gürjara schools, Kaccha-Ānarta, Arbūda and Medapāta to be precise. The two marble images of Ambikā, then, reasonably may be placed to Vimala's period and at least one (Plate 8) may date from the foundation of the temple, the other, although contemporaneous, may have been soon after installed or brought here at some later date from Ārāsaņa or Candrāvati or some such site in the Arbūda territory.
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The Vimala Period Sculptures in Vimala-Vasahi
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By way of comparison I introduce here three less known images of Ambikā indicating progressive motion toward ossification in rendering. Plate 10 is from the sanctum of Mahāvira temple at Ārāsaņa, dateable to c. A. D. 1062. Its halo differs, so are the ornaments, flattened and stuck to the skin of body. (The Sarvānubhūti there, Plate 11, is also in the same style.) The crown preferred here is karnda; the general treatment and mannerism seem to derive from the so-called Sās temple at Nāgadā near Ahad in Mevād.
One more examples of an image of Ambā in Plate 12 is in a devakulikā in the western bhramantikā or colonnaded cloister of the Mahāvira temple in Arāsaņa. The fine suave features met with earlier, disappear here. The squarish face, the summarized ornaments, and the hardened mould indicates toward 12th or the 13th century A. D.
The fifth image of Ambikā (Plate 13) is from Mt. Girnar, installed in a late medieval small kulikā near the southern porch of the gūdhamaņqapa of the Nemină tha temple. The general mannerism and idiom of treating the limbs,-legs, waist and torso--and face as well as ornaments and the amra-pallavi in the hands seem to remind the sculptures of Kumārapāla's time inside the Vimala-vasahi additions and at other places. An inscription of S. 1215/A.D. 1159 in the northern porch of the bhramantika of the Neminātha temple refers to the installation of an Ambikā image near Nägajhara 6. Plausibly this is the said image, removed from the original site at a later date to the kulikā where it is found today. The blackened surface speaks of prolonged algae action on the marble of the very image, a fact which supports the supposition that it must be the very image mentioned in the inscription referred to in the foregoing lines. These last two iliustrations unhesitatingly prove the relative earliness of the Arāsana Ambikā in Plate 10, which in its turn clearly endorses the earliness of the style of the two Vimala-vasahi icons shown as Plates 8 and 9.
The last illustration (Plate 14) apparently pertains not to Vimala's but his successor Cahilla's times. The hastiśālā of the vasati very plausibly was built by him. The pair of dvār apalakas placed at the eastern entrance still retains the gracefully swaying body of the times c. the mid eleventh century A. D. and are in any case not latter than Cāhilla's period.
(What is left out of discussion in this paper is the image in the forechamber of the southwestern extension of the bhramantikā. This large black stone image, popularly known as of Jain Muni Suvrata and looked upon as 2500 years old, is, in fact, of Jaina Rşabha; it certainly was the original mūlanāyaka image of Vimala's temple and hence of A. D. 1032. Its pedestal is lost but the masuraka-seat bearing jewels on the front, the padmaparbhā-aureole, the vyāla-makara at the lateral of the throne, and the face and the hair style of the Jina's figure,-all proclaim early eleventh century as the age of the image. The image is not permitted to be photographed.)
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M. A. Dhaky
All the illustrations for this paper are by the courtesy and kindness of the
American Institute of Indian Studies, Varanasi. Notes and References
1. Cf. "The Chronology of the Solanki Temples of Gujarat”, Journal of the
Madhya Pradesh Itihas Parishad, No. 3, 1961; also “Vimala-vasahi-ni
Ketalika Samašyão” (Gujarāti), Svadhyāya, Vol. IX, No. 3, V.S. 2028. 2. Bhillamāla, from the 11th cent. A.D., is equally known as Srimāla after
the city's patron goddess Sri (Mahālakṣmi). From late medieval times
onward, the town is known as Bhinnamāla. 3. Currently Pāțan. 4. Currently Delvādā, anglicised Dilwara. 5. I forego citations since not relevant to be central facts of this paper. 6. This is the tradition recorded in the annals of the Kharatara-gaccha which
traces its ultimate roots in this Vardhamāna Sūri. The alternative tradition, of the Tapa-gaccha records in particular, aver that the four ācāryas of the four different kulas or sub-orders of monks,--Nāgendra, Candra, Nirvștti and Vidyādhara-officiated the consecration rites. Again, I forego citing original sources since not serviceable to the main
discussion. 8. For references pertaining to original sources, see my paper “Vimala
vasahi-ni" earlier referred to 9. The town is currently known as Kumbhāria where five Jaina and one
Sivaite marble temples exist. The old township has disappeared, the sttlement shifted a mile to the west of Kumbhāria, to what is known as
Ambāji. 10. Very disappointingly so indeed. 11. The earliest Devakulikā image-pedestal dates to S. 1121/A.D. 1065. 12. For discussion and references to the original sources, see my "Vimalava
sahi-Ni.,' paper. 13. Ibid. 14. The torana and the grilled walls of the 'hastiśālā, the eastern mukhaca
tuşki and the mūlaprāsāda (main shrine) and the gūdhamandapa are still extant. The original trika and the rangamaxdapa were refurbished in
marble in mid 12th cent. A. D. 15. Cf. Pt. Ambalal Premchand Shah, Jaina tirtha-Sarvasangraha (Gujarāti)
Vol. I, pt. 1, Ahmedabad 1953, p. For latest discussion and citation, see my “Ujjayantagiri and Jain Aristanemi", Journal of Indian Society of Oriental Art, NS, Vol. XI, 1980, p. 69, infra.
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1. Seated Jina, northern bhadra khattaka, prāsāda, Vimala vasahi, Delvādā., Mt. Ābu. C. A. D. 1032
2. Seated Jina, western bhadra
khattaka, Vimala vasahi. C. A. D. 1032.
For Private & Persona Use Oni
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3.Seated Jina, southern bhadrakhattaka, Vimala vasahi. A. D. 1032.
4. Seated Jina, Jaina temple.
Bedā. C. early 11th cent. A D.
gelibrary.org
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5. Stated Jina, Jaina temple Bedā.
C. early Ilth cent. A. D
6. Seated Jina, Jaina temple. Bedā.
C. early 10th cent. A. D.
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7. Seated Jina, Jaina Temple,
Varmān. C. late 9th cent. A. D.
8. Ambikā, Vimala vasahi, Delvādā,
Mt. Abu. C. A. D. 1032.
For Private & Perso
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9. Ambikā, Vimala vasahi, Delva
C. A. D. 1032
10. Ambikā, Mahāvīra temple, Kum
bhāriā (Ārāsaņa). C. A. D. 1062
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11. Sarvānubhūti, Mahavira temple,
Kumbhāriā. C. A. D. 1062
12. Ambikā Mahavira temple,
Kumbhāriā (Ārāsaņa), Devakulikā in bhramantika. C. 12th or 13th cent. A. D.
10
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________________ 13. Ambika, Neminatha temple, Girnar. C. A. D. 1059. 14. Hastisala, torana-pillar and dvarapala, Vimala vasahi Delvada. C. mid 11th cent A. D. For Private & Personal Use On