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Jaina Rock-cut Caves in Western India Near the left sidewall, almost in the middle, there is a loose throne. It is very finely carved. It is staggered and has the mouldings of bhitta, jadyakumbha, antarpatta, tripatta kumuda, antarpatta and kapota. On the front of each face is a decorative lozenge in a compartinent. On the upper side, there is a mortise hole to receive the image. The throne is 1.22m by 0.74m and 0.63m high. The groove is 0.2m by 0.14m and 0.07m deep.
It is quite possible that this cave was a sort of a mandapa with a chaumukha installed on this throne and kept in the centre.
Date
These caves tre dated to 11th 12th century CE by Fergusson and Burgess on the basis of the palaeography of the inscription on the pillar in Cave IV and their obvious similarities with structural temples of the region of the same period (1880: 505-508). Naik has dated these caves to the latter half of the 12th century CE. According to him, the ground plans of these caves, especially the ground floors of Cave I and II are almost identical to the temple no. I at Anjaneri, which is later than temple no. 2 on stylistic grounds. As temple no. 2 has an inscription dated in the year 1142 CE, these caves can be dated to the latter half of 12th century CE (Naik 1947: 376).
These caves follow the regional structural temples in various features like the type of the ground plan, half-enclosed verandahs with kakşāsanas and dwarf pillars on them, type of doorways as well as pillars and moulded plinths. These temples are built mainly between the 11th to 13th centuries. A number of the details of the doorway such as mandaraka flanked by kirtimukhas, kumbhavahinis-dvārapalas and other such figures on the pedya with typical design of flower within a circle above their heads, projecting uttaranga with khura type mouldings can be compared with any of the temple belonging to this age. The type of sakhas such as the valli sakha, depicting a creeper formed by circles and filled in with flowers and the type of stambha sakha are very typical of the age. The ground plans are similar to any of the structural temple of the period, not particularly to temple no. 1 at Anjaneri as conjectured by Naik. Therefore, the ground plan can be used for arriving at a broad date of the caves and no specific date as suggested by Naik can be proposed. The pillars are of the style in vogue in the temples of this age. Although there are a number of varieties in pillar type, some of which are very decorative and elaborate, the kichaka and naga hood on the bracket capital and triangular fillets, both on the base as well as the shaft, are very distinct features of this period and also this region. Moreover, a number of decorative motifs such as lozenges and kirtimukhas, profusely used in these caves, are regular features of almost all the structural temples.
It appears that there was an attempt to imitate the strucutural architecture in all the details. The plinths with different mouldings, especially gajathara, are as found in the temples, though less elaborate here. The very presence of such plinths suggests an attempt to make the cave look like a structural temple, as functionally they are quite useless in a rock-cut monument. The caves not only imitate the structural temples, but have some members, which are structural and not rock-cut. The shrine doorway of Cave VI is entirely structural. It is difficult to conjecture why a structural doorway was provided. There may have been various reasons for such an arrangement, but a tendency to make a cave appear like a structural temple can be noticed.
