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ancient tirtha of the Jainas. In the Jnatadhar. makatha, a Jaina canonical text, it is referred to as Pundarikagiri. In later Jaina literature, this place is associated with some auspicious events in the life of Rsabha, the first Tirthankara. It is also said that a temple was dedicated to Rsabhanatha, on this mountain, Pundarikasvami, the first Ganadhara of Rasbha, obtained emancipation on this sacred mountain and a memorial to him, in the form of a shrine with his image, was raised here. Since then, the mountain came to be called Pundarikagiri. We shall now refer to a few images and inscriptions which throw more light on the art and antiquity of this site. Fig. 1 illustrates a beautiful marble image of Pundarikagiri installed in the first cell adjacent to the staircase, beside the main entrance to chief shrine of Rsabhanatha (Adinatha) on this moun. tain. This sculpture, fortunately well-preserved, is about 2.5 feet in height and about 1.5 ft. broad at base. The pedestal or the lowermost part of the sculpture has an inscription in four lines. A big lotus with an ornamental long stalk springs from the top of the pedestal, and divides the whole sculpture into two sections. The upper section shows a figure of Pundarikagiri, sitting in the padmasana, dhyanamudra, on a cushion-like seat placed on the full-blown lotus. There is a back-rest whose two ends show lions supporting the horizontal bar resting on two pillars. Above are two divine garland-bearers, and on top the chatra or the umbrella. The figure of the Ganadhara could easily be mistaken for that of a Tirthankara, if the inscription had not specifically shown that it represented Pundarikagiri.
VEJENTA
Some Inscriptions and Images on
Mount Satrunjaya AMBALAL PREMCHAND SHAH
The age of antiquity or ancient monuments is temples-site of Delvada, Mount Abu.
I generally inferred from the styles of architec- One can see several streets and rows of temples ture and sculpture and on the basis of available and images on Mount Satrunjaya. A common man inscriptions. Since the temples at Satrunjaya were can hardly make any distinction between the renovated from time to time through many earliest and the latest specimens of art among the centuries very little evidence of antiquity has been hundreds and thousands of images in this templeleft for us. For want of published old inscriptions, city, where no human habitation is allowed. But sculptures in temples, scholars came to believe the searching eye of a historian is on the look ou that the temple-city of Satrunjaya could hardly for all stray old inscriptions and specimens of art.
claim to be earlier than or even as old as the Jaina. According to literary traditions, Satrunjaya is an in Euro
Below the lotus, the two sides of the stalk further form two sections, the centre being occupied by the sthapana. To the right of the sthapana sits a Jaina monk, a Guru, in the act of giving a discourse to the two disciples sitting in front, with folded hands, on the other side of the sthapana.
This is one of the finest examples of sculptural art of Gujarat in V.S. 1064/= 1006 A.D.), the date of
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