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Jaina Architecture of Orissa
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such votive temples containing Jaina divinities, people of all religious order are tempted to assign it the name of Devasabhā where according to mythology the Gods assemble to have their own deliberations. It is difficult to ascribe any date to the Devasabha in the present state of our knowledge but on the basis of the features of the Jaina Tirthankara images in some of the caves of Khandagiri and within the miniature shrines themselves, we can roughly take its origin back to the medieval period, prior to it this place might have been used by the Jaina ascetics for their open discussions or occasional get together.
The crest of Khandagiri hill is crowned by a temple dedicated to Rşabhanātha (Fig. 34). The figure of Rşabhanātha made of white marble is of recent installation. R.L. Mitra23 has given an account of its picturesque set up thus "Ascending now the top of the hill we come to a Jaina temple which forms the most picturesque feature of the place. In itself a structure of the recent date being only about eighty years old, in style having nothing to commend it to particular attention being small, insignificant and totally devoid of ornament it is nevertheless the most prominent and attractive object on these hills, perched on the very crest of the hill and commanding a wide view as far as the eye can reach with the low hills of Dimapara on the one side and the great tower of Bhubaneswar on the other and an open country all round, whose sterile ungrateful laterite soil is relieved here and there by topes of mango and bamboo and tolerably large patches of cultivation, the temple enjoys one of the finest and most romantic sites which could be selected in this part of the country for raising the mind of man from its mundane surroundings to an undisturbed contemplation of the author of creation. The Jainas have been particularly fortunate in this respect, and all their more important temples have been placed on especially picturesque sites”. Like the generality of Brahmanical temples in Orissa, this temple comprises two parts, a temple proper and the Jagamohana both built in the pyramidal style and plastered over lime. The temple was most probably built on the site of an earlier shrine a presumption, substantiated not only by Kittoes notice in 1837, of the vestiges of earlier structures at the site, but also by the existence on the terrace near the temple of more than a hundred monolithic miniature shrines, most of them having at one of their faces the figure of a Jaina Tirtharkara. Sterling too, reported to this construction and the large quantities of images of the Nirvānas or naked figures executed in grey chlorite slate rock for worship of the Jainas found all around.
Now coming to the architectural details we find the main temple is built on a high plinth with square bada and pyramidal superstructure. The tiers seven in number are gradually diminishing towards the top. From the front edges of the third and fifth tiers of each side we find lions projecting forward almost in the centre of the tiers. The niches meant for the Pārsvadevatās like that of the Hindu temples are kept empty on the rahāpagas of there sides. The bada has five projections and each projection is set with khākharāmundis in regular intervals. The padukānalā attached with makara head is noticed on the base of the northern wall. The crowning elements of the temple consist
23. Ibid, Vol. II, p. 64.
