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Description and Chronology of Caves
197 2. Head: 0.42m by 0.36m.
Only the part of the karanda crown on the head and the snake-hood above it is left. The face is destroyed. The single snake-hood above the crown suggests that the figure was either of yakşa Dharanendra or yakşi Padmavati.
3. Female figure: 0.87m by 0.5m.
This is a headless figure. It is a two-armed figure of a female standing in tribhanga. Her right hand is on the shoulder holding some object, which is broken. The left hand is on the waist. She is fully decked (Fig. 62c). To her right is a small figure of a standing female, facing opposite to the larger female. The position of hands suggests that she must be a chauri bearer.
4. Head: Only parts of the karanda crown and a small figure on each side of the crown are extant.
Probably these figures were kept beside an icon of Parsvanatha, whose yaksayakşi have snake-hoods above the heads. There must have been few more loose icons installed in various parts of cave as indicated by the benches in the hall.
The photograph given by Cousens testifies that the cave was in better condition of preservation and that it has been recently destroyed. The façade, plinth, kakṣāsanas and the right pillar of the verandah were intact till the early part of the last century.
Date
This cave has been dated to Saka 1266 or 1344 CE by Cousens on the basis of the inscription on the cushion of the main image (1931: 48-49). Naik dates this cave not to the date mentioned in the inscription, but to the latter half of the 12th century CE or the beginning of the 13th century CE on the basis of similarity of plan and pillars with temple no. 1 at Anjaneri and also the on the basis of an inscription in Nagari characters on the wall in the north end of the verandah, which could be dated to the 12th or 13th century CE on palaeographical grounds (1947: 378). This inscription has vanished now.
The cave is very clearly similar to the caves at Ankai-Tankai and regional, structural temples in a number of features such as the plinths, kakşāsanas, pillars, hall doorway and a number of decorative motifs on the ceiling and elsewhere. The peculiar sculpture of male with females around him on the verandah ceiling has a few parallels in the structural temples. The hall ceilings of Krishna temple at Vaghli in Jalgaon district and Jogesvara temple at Devalana in Nasik district have a sculpture of Krishna surrounded by females or gopis, quite in the same style as here, though in more decorative form. (Cousens 1931: Plates XXXVI and LXV). The antechamber ceiling of the temple at Devalana has two more such sculptures of Visnu surrounded by females or males. The Murlidhāra temple at Kudal in Sholapur district also has three such sculptures in the three aisles of the verandah ceiling. Thus, here, the prevalent trend was followed, omitting the religious affinity. The figure of Kiisna was replaced by a man. The temple at Vaghli contains an inscription dated to 1069 CE (Cousens 1931: 31), while the Devalana temple is dated in the first half of the 13th century CE on stylistic grounds (Deglurkar 1974: 69). Naik is right in dating the cave earlier than the date mentioned in the
