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CHAPTER 22]
CENTRAL INDIA
down in Nāga figures, now mutilated. The second and fourth $akhas depict ganas dancing or playing on musical instruments. The third săkhā which is treated as a stambha-sakha is carved with eight Yakşis. The proper right jamb shows from bottom upwards : (1) four-armed goddess carrying abhaya, spiral lotus-stalk, spiral lotus-stalk and water-vessel, mount missing:(2) fourarmed goddess carrying a missing object, sruk, book and fruit, animal-mount resembling a deer represented below; (3) four-armed goddess carrying abhaya, pāśa, spiral lotus-stalk and a missing object with a bird-mount; (4) four-armed goddess carrying abhaya, sruk, book and water-vessel, with a bull-mount below. The proper left jamb shows from bottom upwards : (1) four-armed goddess carrying spiral lotus-stalk and sarkha in the two surviving hands, crocodilemount below; (2) four-armed goddess with all attributes broken, but an intact parrot-mount; (3) four-armed goddess carrying spiral lotus-stalk, book and a fruit in the three surviving hands, with headless animal as mount; and lastly, (4) four-armed goddess carrying abhaya, spiral lotus-stalk, book and water-vessel, with a bull-mount below. The fifth sakhā is decorated with the design of śrīvatsa alternating with rosettes. The sixth sākhā forming the bevelled surround of the doorway is decorated with scrolls in bold relief issuing from the mouth of a vyāla below. The last or the seventh sākha is decorated with a peculiar type of circular rosettes. The first säkhä together with the flanking mandāra-frieze is carried up on the lintel. The lintel of the doorway resting on the stambha-sākhās shows images of five goddesses in niches. The central and the end niches represent seated goddesses, each supported on a four-armed bhūta, while the niches flanking the central one show standing goddesses. The central niche represents four-armed Cakreśvarī carrying abhaya, gadā, book and sankha. She is seated on Garuda and wears kirițamukufa. The proper right-end niche represents Ambika Yaksi carrying a bunch of mango-fruits, spiral lotus-stalk, book enclosed by spiral lotus-stalk and a child. She is seated on a lion. The proper left-end niche shows Padmavati Yakşi seated on a tortoise under a canopy of serpent-hoods. She carries abhaya, pasa, lotus-bud and water-vessel. All the five niches of the lintel are surmounted by udgamas. The base of the doorway shows Gangā and Yamunā flanked by female attendants on each side. The attendants depicted on the door-jambs proper face each other and carry a water-jar with crocodile represented behind the proper right figure and tortoise behind the proper left figure. The figures of river-goddesses and their attendants are badly mutilated. So are also the figures of the four dvāra-palas, two on each side, which occur respectively below the surround of the doorway and the pilasters flanking the doorway. The door-sill shows on the rectilinear central projection a beautiful lotus-scroll flanked by female attendants. Beyond the
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