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158
Jaina Monuments of Orissa
of the ghanţa or Sri, amalaka khapuri and kalasa. The beki is envisaged above the pyramidal roof. The temple facing east is opened through the eastern wall to the Jagamohana. No trace of graha panel and the conventional door Jambs containing attendant figures are available at the entrance of the temple. The simhasana in the centre of the garbhagļha preserves the recently installed marble Rşabhanātha figure surrounded by a series of Jaina images of earlier period.
The Jagamohana in front, on the other hand having the same plinth is built with a rectangular bada and pyramidal roof. The roof consists of five tiers, lions are projecting (like the temple) from the centre of the edges of the third tier of each side. Two lions flank the crowning elements at the top of the eastern tier. They are facing to the northern and southern directions. The crowning elements as usual consist of the ghanta, āmalaka, khapuri and kalasa. The main entrance to the temple complex through the Jagamohana is on the east. However two side entrances are noticed on the northern and southern walls of the Jagamohana. The inner walls of both the Jagamohana and the temple are not decorated with any carvings. The simhasana, floors of both the shrines and the outside steps, are all covered with white marble slabs. The Jagamohana also do not contain any attendant vehicle of the divinity.
This temple complex was built by Manju Choudhury and his nephew Bhavani Dadu of Cuttack, Jaina merchants of the Digambari sect.24 In front of the temple there is a fine terrace, about fifty feet square with a raised masonry seat all round. The Jains are very particular about this terrace as an appurtenance to their temples and invariably have it in front of all their places of worship. Their temples being with some notable exceptions small and not fit to accommodate any large number of persons at the same time, these terraces are very useful for the congregation to assemble on. On either sides of the temple are also miniature shrines also in pyramidal design. The one found on the northern side has a pillared mandap added in front in recent date.
The colossal image of Pārsvanātha in black marble which is installed in a marble shrine to the right of the temple and within the same courtyard is commissioned in the year 1950. The basement. corner pillars and crowning sikharas at top are all fashioned in marble. The crowning element above the roof of the shrine is formed of a series of angaśikharas.
On the top of the Mahāvīra-Gumphā is noticed an oblong masonry structure with its roof and crowning elements fashioned after a temple of the pidha order. It was probably built recently when the three images of Rsabhanātha were installed inside the Mahāvira-Gumphā by the Jainas who added a structural pillared verandah to the cave, removed in the first decade of the present century.
Another small shrine having opening on all the four side walls and a pyramidal roof is available in front of the Bārabhuji-Gumphā. It too, is crowned with amalaka Sila and the kalasa.
24. R. L. Mitra, Ibid, p. 64.
