Jaina Art and Architecture Vol 01

Author(s): A Ghosh
Publisher: Bharatiya Gyanpith

Page 71

CHAPTER 6]
MATHURA
centre of which rises a conspicuous chatra. A fourth railing enclosing the processional path is provided at the ground-level. It is not unlikely that this stipa represents the so-called deva-nirmita stupa, which possibly had no lithic gateway to begin with.
Another representation of a stupa occurs on a fragment (SML, J. 535) of a second architrave of this period; this is now in the store-room in the Lucknow Museum. All the four sides of this architrave were deliberately sliced in order to convert it into the corner-post of a railing, with the result that portions of the carved surface have disappeared. The available portion of the relief shows a stupa, of which the lowest portion and the umbrella above the railing on the hemispherical dome are missing. As the lowest portion is not available, one is not sure if the drum had two terraces with railings or not. If not, the lowest railing (the portion immediately below it chipped off) would have served as a ground-balustrade. On the sinister of the stupa are an elephant with two riders, a horse-rider and heads of two bullocks, possibly driving a cart (missing). The carved face bears two-and-a-half sockets. One of the adjoining sides also presents sockets for the tenons of the cross-bars.
A developed form of stupa-architecture is furnished by the well-preserved relief (plate 1) on a silä-paţa (äyāga-pata) (AMM, Q. 2), referred to above.' The inscription on it, recording various dedications (above, p. 52) of the courtezan Vāsu, is palaeographically referable to the pre-Kaniska decades. In contrast to the preceding stupa, its elongated cylindrical drum is conspicuously high enough to give the stupa a somewhat tower-like appearance. It is in two terraces, both having carved railings around. At the crown of the hemispherical dome is a square two-barred railing, from the centre of which rears up an umbrella with floating garlands. An innovation of this stupa is its high platform, presumably square. The terrace over the platform served as a processional path. It is enclosed by a three-barred railing, the latter pierced by a gateway (torana). Access to the terrace from the ground is provided by a balustraded staircase of eight steps right in front of the gateway. The façade of the platform is relieved with arched niches simulating makara-toranas and containing standing figures (male on the dexter and female on the sinister) above pedestals. The lavishly-carved torana has an affinity with those of Bharhut and Sanchi. It consists of two oblong carved posts supporting three horizontal curviform architraves with ends simulating makaras. Between the architraves are supporting blocks, while the two rolled ends of the bottom architrave are sustained by two lion-shaped brackets. Crowning the top architrave is a honeysuckle motif
Journal of the U.P. Historical Society, XXIII, 1950, pp. 69 and 70.
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