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 75

ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF WESTERN INDIA.
The facade over these rooms, forming a parapet in front of the hall above, has a compartment in the centre carved with a male and female, attended by two smaller females, each holding the stalk of a tower; at the sides are pilasters bearing makaras holding a turonu (plate vii). On each side the wall is divided by small pilasters into panels, contaiving alternarely an elephant's bead playing with, or feeding on, flowers, and a rampant surdula trampling on a small elephant. Above this is a frieze of water-jars. Above the hall a drip projects covered with florid carving, Aying figures in twos and threes, and curious little dwarfs hanging over with garlands. The next moulding is carved with numerous animals, but somewhat weatherworn; and over it is a broad frieze, broken vertically by pilasters into representations of little shrines, each containing a figure; Indra in the centre on the left and Ambikå on the right, with Gômateśvara, l'arývanátha, and other Jinas in the remaining panels. The middle portion, representing the side of a building with an arched roof upheld by four kneeling figures, has a Jina seated cross-legged on the side, and another in a chaitya-window shaped recess just abore him. Over this again the rock projects a little, and has served to preserve the sharpness of this sculpture.
Returning to the great ball, the section on plate xxxvii shows to some extent the variety in the patterns of the pillars supporting its roof, and of the arrangement of the sculptures on the walls. The pillars in the central hall are of five different patterns: two in the front and two in the back row are illustrated on plate xxxviii, fig. 3; the two middle columns on each side in fig. 1, with which is also shown the bracket above and the architrave; and the corner pillars are of the style represented in fig. 4. The four columns separating the verandah from the area of the hall are shown on plate xxxix, fig. 1, and those in the front of the verandah in fiy. 2.
In the centre of each side wall, occupying a large compartment, is a Jina seated crosslegged on a throne, with the wheel, elephants' heads, and lions carved in front of it, and with two elephants below; like Buddba, he is attended by two chauri-bearers and a pair of Vidyadharas above, with aureole, triple umbrella, and sacred tree. On each of the other areas, between pilasters, are two smaller figures of Jinas on simhasanas, and usually with small figures blowing conch-shells, between their trees. On the front of each pillar before the shrine, and also on the corresponding pilasters on each side, are tall nude male figures, some of them much injured. The ceiling has a large lotus in the centre, and still retains a good deal of painting, though somewhat smoked.' The door of the sbrine is represented on plate lxxxis of The Care Temples.
THE JAGANNATH SABHA. The second large Jaina care in this group is known as the Jagannath Sabha," and is so close to the Indra Sabha that the wall of the west wing of the upper floor of the latter has been broken through into a cell on the east side of the upper floor of the Jagannath Sabha. The court of this cave, however, is much smaller than that of the last, hardly 38 feet square, and has contained some structural erections now entirely destroyed. The plan of the ground floor with the small cave to the west of it is given on plate xc, fig. 1, of the Cave Temples, and that of the upper floor, together with the west shrine of the ludra Sablâ, on fig. 2; and on plate scii, fig. 3, is given a drawing of one of the pillars in the lower ball, while fig. 1 represents the style of those in the upper hall.
1 For further details see Care Temples, pp. 196-500. • Cave Temples, pp. 500, 501, and plates xc and xcii, figs. 1 and 3.