Jaina Monuments Of Orissa

SR No.: 022826
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: R P Mohapatra
Publisher: D K Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 384
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 20 MB

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Jaina Monuments of Orissa
relief. She is driving her own elephant with a goad in her right hand. Whereas the terracotta plaque depicts only the flight scene the stone relief supplements it by adding a couple of subsidiary related scenes enacted in Udayana's Capital at Kausambi. In the second part of the scene separated from the first by a tree which marks the end of the forest, Udayana and Vasavadatta are out of danger and seem to have reached their capital. They are alighting from their elephant who is kneeling on the ground. In the third part Vasantaka is shown with a bag on his shoulder, evidently the bag of coins, and Udayana is leading Vasavadatta to his palace. The fourth scene shows the disconsolate lady Vasavadatta inside the harem and the king engaged in consoling her".
The story of Udayana as available in Buddhist, Jaina and Brahmanical literature, is essentially a love romance, and there are no differences based on religion in the main outline of the story. The scene relating to the flight of Udayana and Vasavadatta on elephant from Ujjaini form a common part of all the versions.
The semi circular spaces formed by the arched bands of Ananta-Gumpha depict relief sculptures often having narrative character. The subject matter of the last two, though found intact, they are partially damaged in the earlier two. In the opening tympanum from left it is seen that a four-tusked huge elephant occupies the centre of frieze (Fig. 18). The sculptor has set himself the task of representing in low relief every limb and feature of his great bulk enface. The left hand corner bears a floral representation and a well drawn female elephant in profile trailing a long lotus stalk whose flower she is holding up to the middle elephant. The only bud and the leaf attached to the stalk are rightly provided to fill up the gap. A lotus on the other side is held up similarly but the female elephant is wanting due to the collapse of the mass of rock in between the first and the second door-way. A similar panel with slight variations is also depicted in one of the pillar tops of the verandah of Alakapuri-Gumpha. In this panel the four-tusked elephant at the centre is flanked by the two she-elephants with fly whisk and parasol contrary to the lotus stalks in the Ananta-Gumphã relief. The repetition of the subject in at least two separate places indicate its popularity. Alexander E. Caddy is inclined to connect this episode with Chadanta Jataka while N.K. Sahu21 with that of the white elephant of Vesantara Jataka who averted drought and famine in Kalinga.
The second tympanum depicts the figure of a turbaned royal personage wearing heavy kundalas, a necklace and bangles under one umbrella, with a female figure holding a fly-whisk on either side and driving a chariot drawn by four spirited horses. Above them are the representation of the moon, surrounded by stars and the Sun which symbolises the stellar world. The left hand of the figure is placed on the waist and the right on the chest. The demonish pot bellied dwarf holding a spouted water vase in his left hand and a banner in his right hand, stands at the right of the relief near the wheel of the chariot. Due to damaging condition only faint traces of the hind parts of the horses harnessed to the chariot are found in the composition.
20. A.E. Caddy, JASB, Vol. LXV, Part-II, pp. 272-74. 21. N.K. Sahu, History of Orissa, Vol. I, p. 385.