Report On Elura Cave Temples and Bramhanical and Jaina Caves in Western India

SR No.: 011091
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Trubner and Company London
Publication Year: 1883
Total Pages: 209
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 14 MB

Page 37

IRCILEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF WESTERX IXDI.1.
leven? Buldha seated on a simhasına, with Gandharvas above him and the two favourite Bölhisattvas as chuuri-bearers. To the right and left of this are the nine panels again renatal, and over that to the right are three arched compartments containing figures of four-armed goddesses similar to those representing Dharma and Samgha in the mythology of the northern Buddhists, the second with lotus bud and attendants, and the third with
erhuis a bottle and shankh or conch shell. On the east wall is a four-armed Devi with songething like a dish filled with fruit or food in one of her left hands on her lap, and holding a lotus, &c. Then Buddha and attendants; and again two figures of the four-armed unde, her two front hands laid on her knees; and lastly, Buddha with attendants.
On the west wall is Padmapåņi seated with one leg tucked under him and his hands on his knees (plate xviii, fig. 3). To his left is a goddess, probably Tårå or Prajña, with a cagaba on the front of her headdress, and with the right foot down over the padmasana un lutus seat, and the left doubled up on it (lalitásana mudrá). Her right hand lies over her knee with the palm turned outwards (rardha or cara mudra), the attitude of bestowal, tad the left holds the stalk of a flower. On the other side is a fat figure with the right fimit raised upon the seat, and a bud at his elbow. Outside this compartment to the left the two females in the attitude of supplication, and above them a male figure with a flowerstalk-the usual badge of a Bodhisattva.
Ascending the other half of the stair, we land in a small room at the south end of the verandal of the second storey, which is on the same plan as the upper floor of the last cave,
ir with a larger hall (pl. xiv, fig. 2). The verandah is 116 feet long by 11 feet wide and 12 feet 2 inches high, with eight square pillars in front, and with a small room at each end, forming at the south the landing for the stair from the ground floor, and at the north the potrance to the stair ascending to the upper floor. From each of these a still smal
partment opens; that at the south, a small cell with a stone bench; the other, a recess, with an image of Buddha seated with the wheel-emblem between his feet, his hands in the 2nd Zharmachakra or teaching mudra, and in front, on the ground, two deer. Padmapâņi and Vijrapâņi, with chauris, stand on each side, coarsely executed. On the wall, opposite the foot of the stair, are Padmapåņi and two female figures, and, above them, a då gaba, a Buddha, and a male and female, each with flower-stalks.
The hall lies back from the verandah, and is entered through a vestibule about 36 feet wide by 18 feet deep, with two square pillars in front and back, and also by side doors at 6 the ends of the verandah. In each of the large blocks of rock left two cells are carved, facing the hall, which is 118 feet from north to south, by about 34 feet deep and 11 feet
inches high, divided into three aisles by rows of eight square pillars each-two of them wmls hewn away. In each end of this hall, including the passage from the end door, are
cells; and in the back wall are five more. The antechamber to the shrine is 36 feet ab, with two pillars in front.
In the north end of the vestibule of the hall is a large sculpture of Avalokitesvara il between two females (Lochani' and Târâ), the one on his left hand having a bottle
This is apparently one of the Trials of which the Bauddha sects have so many, in one of the chief of which rolni is identified with the Sangha, the other two being Ludba and Prajna who represents the Dharma. :In connection with this Triad that the Northern Bullhists have the famous mantra,
Om sarere chlym Om Prajiiy honi Om mini- me horie || She occupies a high qulace in the Malayata mythology, and is represented as the second constituent of the me or threefoll body," or that entlueil with the samhôalviya of absolute completeness, and the cquivaut ur counterpart of the Struha in the Triratna. In Nepil she is the sakti of lkshobhya.