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Art and Architecture / 245
is in accordance with the description of Vasunandi, Nēmicandra and Asādhara. Siddhāyikā yakşi on the left is holding a book in her left hand and the right hand being in varadamudrā pose. An ornamented nimbus depicting coiled creeper, representing caitya tree, is emerging from the stretched snout of Vyāli on either side of the aureola. The third figure of Jina Pārsa belongs to the early decades of 11th century. Epigraphical evidence confirm the hoary antiquity of the place and its close relationship with both Mulgunda and Puligere (Laksmēśvar).
8.6.5. Niśidhis, with its variants showing difference in the use of sibilant and the ending of the form describe the deceased personality, the way in which a person willingly submitted to voluntary death, and the person by whom the commemoration was executed. A slab-stone or a boulder, as a post-mortem memorial, usually erected at the spot where the pious individual breathed his/her last or where his/her body was burnt. Depending on the status of the deceased, a square platform with/without corner pillars, is raised. This platform with corner pillars resembles a mandapa, without any side-walls. Such maņdapas and raised platforms can be found on the candragiri, the smaller hill at Sravanabelagola and elsewhere in the state. Though, primarily they are postobito eipitaphs, many of them furnish historical details, and most of them contain sculptures worth considering.
8.6.5.1. On par with basadis, the nisidhis of the period are noted for their historical and sculptural significance. Incidentally some of them are the earliest found in the state. Among them the most illustrative and distinct type is the sculptured and inscribed stele from Doddahuņdi (Mysore Dt, T. N. Pura Tk), showing Nitimārga Permānaţi-I (853-69), the Ganga king, on his death bed. This stele is now in the Museum of Bangalore. This nisidhi is also called a kalnadu, a type of hero-stone, which was raised by Satyavākya
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