Style and Composition in Indrasabha and Jagannatha Sabha Caves at Elora

SR No.: 269021
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Doris Chatham
Publisher: Z_Nirgrantha_1_022701.pdf and Nirgrantha_2_022702.pdf and Nirgrantha_3_022703.pdf
Publication Year: 1996
Total Pages: 8
Language: English
Classification: Article & 0_not_categorized
File Size: 5 MB

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Vol. JI-1996 Style and Composition in the.... 85 James Burgess criticized the architecture of these caves rather harshly. "The two principal Jaina Caves," he wrote, "are very extensive works, superior both in extent and elaboration to any of the Brahmanical caves, excepting of course the Kailasa, and the Visvakarma... Though two storeys in height and extremely rich in decoration.... [they] are entirely deficient in that purpose-like architectural expression which characterized the works of the two earlier religions.... the plan is compressed, and all their arrangements seem to result more from accident than to have arisen from any well-conceived design, so that they lose half the effect that might have been produced with far less elaboration of detail"!". Certainly, the effect of a less elaborate but more strictly ordered design would have been different, although we might question the implication that the design of the Kailasa temple is a paragon of logical planning, but, like the Kailasa, these cave-temples are a product more of the sculptural than the architectural imagination. If their arrangements seem more accidental than "well-conceived," it may be that the carvers and their patrons valued richness of detail more than grand spatial effects and that their vision was fully realized through their conceptions. REFERENCES : 1. James Fergusson and James Burgess, The Cave Temples of India, London 1880, Oriental Books reprint, New Delhi 1969, pp. 495-502. See also James Burgess, Archaeological Survey of Western India, Vol. V, New Delhi 1883. 2. K. R. Srinivasan, "Chapter 18: The Deccan," in Jaina Art and Architecture (ed. A. Ghosh,) Vol. I, New Delhi 1974, pp. 188-194. 3. Jose Pereira, Monolithic Jinas, The Iconography of the Jain Temples of Ellora, Motilal Banarsidass, Varanasi 1977. 4. The following is a condensed (and slightly revised) version of my summary of the reign of Amoghavarsa 1, which appeared in my Ph. D. dissertation, Stylistic Sources and Relationships of the Kailasa Temple at Ellora, University of California, Berkeley 1977. 5. See Fergusson and Burgess, The Caves Temples., and Pereira, Monolithic Jinas. 6. Navsari grant of Indra III, Epigraphia Indica, ix, p. 39. 7. I. e., the date of the Surat plates of Karkkaraja, which first mention the event. (Epigraphia Indica, IX, p. 39.) 8. See the Begumra grant of Dhruva II (A. D. 867), 1.A., XII, pp. 179 ff. and A.S. Altekar, Age of Imperial Kanauj, pp. 8-11. (R. C. Majumdar, Gen. Ed.), The History and Culture of the Indian People, Vol. IV, Bombay 1955, 1964. 9. The Karda grant, at the end of Rastrakuta power (A. D. 972-973), recalls the glory of