Jain Journal 1972 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 76

APRIL, 1972
215
Yet Ellora forms one of a group, there are others, more ancient, further south, for example, the Jaina excavations at Badami, Aihole, Patany, Nasik, Dharasiva, Ankai and Junagarh, as well as at Kulumulu (in the Tinnevelly district). The caves of Dharasiva (37 miles north of Solapur) are perhaps the largest of these, and that of Kulumulu, now used by the Saivas, is described as 'a gem of its class'. The Nasik caves have a large number of cells or halls for the monks and indicate the existence of a large establishment and centre of learning there in the Rastrakuta period. Those at Ankai, in Khandesh district, though smaller, "have some very beautiful female dancing figures on petals bearing musical instruments. It may be noted here that these escavations are not copies of structural edifices.” The early Jaina caves were more in the form of natural caverns such as are found at Sittannavasala and other places in the erstwhile Pudukotta state in South India. Some of them contain polished stone beds which are rightly believed to be sanlekhanā beds of Jaina ascetics. Inscriptions in the Brahmi script of 3rd-2nd century B.C. found therein conclusively show them to be adhişthānamah or Jaina monasteries. They were probably the places of resort for worship or penance and continued to be so till the 7th-9th centuries A.D. when under the Pallava rulers of Simhavisnu's line cave temples were scooped out of the rocks. The cave temples on the western slopes of the Sittannavasala hill cut in the time of Mahendravarman I (7th century A.D.), are resorted to even to this day by Jaina pilgrims from different parts of south India. From the 10th century A.D. onwards, however, structural architecture began to replace rock-hewn architecture. The rock-cut style seems to have been a sort of passing episode in the architectural history of the Jainas and was dropped by them when it was no longer wanted. Fine structural edifices began to be built in this period but the ruins of only a few have survived. This branch of Jaina architecture was mostly developed from 9th to 15th century A.D. and saw its climax in that period in the South as well as in the North,
The earliest form of Jaina architecture seems to have been the stūpa. The Jaina Vodva sūpta unearthed at Kankali Tila site of Mathura has been considered as not only one of the earliest discovered buildings in India apart from the Indus Valley discoveries, Dr. Fuhrer who superintended the excavation of the Stūpa said, "The stūpa was so ancient at the time when the inscription was incised that its origin had been forgotten. On the evidence of the characters the date of the inscription may be referred with certainty to the Indo-Scythian era and is equivalent to A.D. 156. The stūpa must, therefore, have been built several centuries before the beginning of the Christian era, for the name of its builders would assuredly have been known if it had been erected