Holy Abu

Author(s): Jayantvijay
Publisher: Yashovijay Jain Granthmala

Page 55

xxii
{ Holy Abu to have adorned the shrine with a maņdapa etc." From the evidence of an inscription in cell no. 14 of this temple, the date of erection of a maņdapa (hasti -shālā) and repairs to the shrine can be fixed as c. 1206 V.S., (1149-50 A.D.) .. It may be remembered that the plan of the Lūņavasahi built by Tejapāla at Abu was copied from that of the Vimala Vasahi and since the Rangamaņdapa of the Vimala Vasahi was erected or repaired about eighty years before the construction of Lūņavasahī, it could naturally þe included in the original plan of the second shrine.
About the Rangamaņdapa of the Vimala Vasahs I would prefer to quote in extenso the remarks of Percy Brown from his very informative work on Indian Architecture, Vol. 18.:: "Some idea of the proportion of the columned hall may be gained from its measurements, the octagonal nave being 25 feet in diameter, the architrave alone being 12 feet from the floor, while the apex of the dome is less than thirty feet high. As with most of the temples of this class, the rim of the dome is supported on an attic system of dwarf pillars with convoluted braces between, and all the capitals are of the four-branched bracket order.
“When it is realised that practically every surface of the interior, including the pillars, is elaborated with sculptured forms, the rich effect may be imagined, but it was in his treatment of the nave that the marble carver found his supreme expression. This dome is built up of eleven concentric rings, five of which, interposed at regular inter. Also see translator's foot-notes in the chapter on Vimala Vasahi in the following pages.
Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu), by Percy Brown, (2nd Revised ed., Bombay ), pp. 147ff. and plates xciv and civ.