Temples of Kumbhariya

SR No.: 001571
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M A Dhaky, U S Moorty
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 2001
Total Pages: 394
Language: English
Classification: Book_English & Art
File Size: 34 MB

Page 120

The Temples in Kumbhariya
The next portion, the satcatuski (Plates 180, 181) today shows largely an unmoulded and an undecorated stereobate-front. It had been laterally extended by one columnar bay each involving the front and rear row toward east as well as west (Fig. 11) in c. A.D. 1254 or perhaps some time soon after for accommodating some additional installations to be shortly described. The original portions are the four frontal and the four rear pillars (Plates 180, 181) which are fully carved as in the nave of the great hall, the two khattakas, as usual, flank the doorway that provides entry to the closed hall. The two central ceilings, one behind the other in this vestibular portion and showing almost identical pattern, are of the Mandāraka class (Plates 183, 184) and in detail they resemble the one that figures above the stairway termination earlier noticed here (Plate 170). The lateral ceilings (Plates 185, 186) are generically related, in terms of detail, to the central type. Compared to the rich and handsome ceilings in the trika of the Mahāvīra, and the satcatuski of the Sāntinātha temple, these look somewhat paltry, rather ordinary and less in keeping [as is also the case with Kumārapāla's great temple of Ajitanātha at Tārangā (c. A.D. 1165) where similar ceilings figure in the satcatuskī], with the otherwise grand looking interior.
The lateral extensions at the east and west of the satcatuskī, mentioned in the foregoing, are walled up, each walling divided visually into two divisions whose exterior has a look of two adjacently placed blind screens of the box type filled with geometric and related motifs (Plate 182). The extensions' aspects falling within the șațcatuskī and behind the aforenoted wall-screens show, at the east, a 'Kalyāṇatrayapatta' (with the uppermost third panel bearing the seated third Jina now lost) dated A.D. 1287 (Plate 243) and in the bay next to it are located two niches which show two standing images of Jinas in kāyotsarga posture. All of these images face west: the corresponding extended portion at the west end shows a large patta dated A.D. 1254 which shows 170 Jinas of the 'utkrsta-kāla' or supremely glorious period in the megacycle of time (Plate 242). The patta faces east. The original feature noticeable at the south wall, as earlier noted, is a pair of khattaka-niches, one at the right and the other at the left of the closed hall's lofty doorway. The additional khattaka attached at the eastern side of the extension and facing north shelters a 'Nandīśvara-dvīpa-patta' dated A.D. 1267 (Plate 241): The corresponding one at the opposite end contains an image of Yaksi Ambikā of a late date (Plate 230), a fairly later addition but the pertinence of whose presence is obvious since the temple belongs to Jina Aristanemi, Ambikā being his attendant Yaksi.