Encyclopaedia of Jaina Studies Vol 01 Jaina Art and Architecture

Author(s): Sagarmal Jain, Others
Publisher: Parshwanath Vidyapith

Page 206

184
Encyclopaedia of Jaina Studies
caitya-gaväksa pattern. The triśākhā door of the sanctum pillars but the brackets of bhāraputrakas are replaced shows foliate scrolls, pillar jamb and lotus petals by roll-brackets. The architraves are similar to those respectively, and has a female figure carrying water pot found in the gūdhamandapa but the upper decorative at the base. The door-sill shows a circular projection band of saw-tooth pattern is absent here, instead it is carved with stemmed lotus in the centre, a projecting plain. Each bay contains a ceiling made by cutting off kirttimukha on its each side and a sculptured niche the corners. Each ceiling consists of three tiers of nine sheltering a figure of four-armed goddess on either stones, the central stone being carved with an open extremity. The door-lintel continues the scroll-band of lotus. the jamb but depicts a figure of Jina on the lalata. The The rangamandapa is nothing but a rubble of overdoor is treated like a cornice. The enshrined image stones. However, from what now remains it appears that has gone now.
originally it consisted of eight pillars disposed along The gudhamandapa is tri-anga on plan and shares the three sides of a square nave, while its fourth side its pitha and wall with the sanctum, but its pyramidal was shared by the front row of mukhamandapa pillars. roof has disappeared. It is entered from the Its six central pillars alongwith two mukhamandapa mukhamandapa by a door which is similar to that of pillars formed an octagon and supported the dome on the sanctum, but the sill has Ambikä and Sarvānubhūtian octagonal frame of architraves. The pillars and on two ends, the pillar-jamb carries a figure of door- architraves are similar to those seen in the keeper on the lower part and figures of musicians and mukhamandapa, but the kürttimukha-band on the circular dancers above, and the lintel depicts a row of hovering section of the shaft is absent here and the pillar-brackets Mälädharas facing the lalátabimba. The interior of the carry kirttimukha figures as well. güdhamandapa is square having its wall reinforced by On architectural and sculptural grounds this temple eight somewhat ornate pilasters supporting a domical is assigned a date somewhere in the third quarter of ceiling on an octagonal frame of architraves decorated the 13th century A.D. with a band of foliate scrolls emerging from the mouth KANTHKOT of a kirttimukha carved in the centre and a band of It lies about thirty one miles from Bhachau Railway saw-tooth pattern. The dome (Pl. 77) is composed of Station in the Kutch district of Gujarat. Kanthkot is six circular courses of karnadardarikā, a course decorated neither a religious place nor a business centre but a with alternate goddesses and Kinnaras, three successive protected stronghold where the kings like Mülarāja I gajatālus and an eight-foil kola. The apical stone of the and Bhima I, both of the Caulukya dynasty, took shelter dome has disappeared.
at the time of their distress. Indeed, there is an old fort The mukhamandapa, landed up from the on the top of a rocky hill with walls built of massive rangamandapa by a flight of three steps, stands on a stone blocks. On the hill stand two temples, one of Sun pītha which is but the continuum of the gūdhamandapa. God and another of Mahāvīra, the latter being a Jaina It is divided into three bays by six pilasters and two shrine going by the name of Solathambā, a name derived square pillars arranged in two rows of four each. The from the number of pillars in the rangamandapa pillars have a moulded base; their shaft is square below comprising sixteen in all. and then it gradually turns into an octagonal, sixteen- Mahāvira Temple - It consists of a sanctum, sided and circular sections, the last one being clasped gūdhamandapa and rangamandapa. Originally, the by a kirttimukha-band; and the capital consists of two rangamandapa had three porches two of which on the circular courses of arris and cyma recta and four-armed lateral sides have collapsed. The temple is weatherbrackets of bhāraputrakas. The pilasters are like the worn and its eastern wall fallen down. The temple faces
Jain Education Intemational
ducation Intermational