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CHAPTER 16]
CENTRAL INDIA of Yakpas seated in sukhasana on lotus-seats linked together by exquisitelycarved lotus-scrolls.
Badoh in District Vidisha is a reputed site of early medieval (Pratihära) art and architecture, largely pertaining to the Brahmapical sects. The site also has a fairly large Jaina temple showing a quadrangular arrangement of devakulikas, cach with a square sanctum, roofed by a latina Nāgara fikhara of circa tenth century. Despite their poor preservation, enough remains to show that the deva-kulikas, numbered twenty-four, enshrining all the Jinas, and the central one with the tallest sikhara was probably dedicated to Rsabhanåtha.
Gyaraspur in the same District is another well-known site abounding in remains of early medieval temples and sculptures of Brahmapical and Jaina religions. The site is dotted with scores of loose Jaina images of circa ninth century, representing standing or seated Jinas and supple figures of Jaina Yaksas and Yaksis shown seated in lalitasana or standing in elegant tri-bhanga (plate 100A). Of the old temples at the site the best preserved is the Jaina temple known as the Maladevi temple, which indeed constitutes a landmark in the development of the Pratthära architecture.
TEMPLES
MĀLĀDEVI TEMPLE, GYARASPUR Partly rock-cut and partly structural, this temple is a sandhara-prasada, consisting of a mukha-mand apa, a mand apa, an antarala, and a sanctum with ambulatory (plates 101 and 102). The sanctum is panca-ratha on plan and is crowned by a curvilinear Nagara Sikhara (plate 103).
The pitha (basement) shows the usual mouldings, executed boldly, and supports the jarghā which is relieved by balconied windows or niches crowned by pediments of caitya-arches (plate 104). Each of its shorter sides shows two balconied windows, while the longer sides show three such windows each, two projecting from the mand apa and one from the sanctum. The windows, being mainly decorative, admit extremely inadequate light.
There are six projections on the southern façade, three larger and three smaller, all embellished with niches on the langhd as well as the picha, Th figures carved on the niches of the largha comprise dik-palas and Jaina Yalgas and Yaksis, while the relief-panels on the pitha show human faces and rich scrolls.
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