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200
Jaina Rock-cut Caves in Western India
4. Yaks. 0.41m by 0.4m (extant portion).
Only the lower portion of the figure is extant. She is seated in vamalalitasana on a pedestal, while the left leg is broken partially. Her vahana, a lion, is depicted on the front of the pedestal. It is partially damaged.
Though there are no identification marks, the vahana lion suggests that it is a figure of Ambika. Siddhayika, the yakṣi of Mahavira also has a lion as her vahana, but usually Ambika is found represented in Maharashtra, as the yakṣi of all Jinas. Thus, it is safer to identify this figure with Ambika.
Date
Burgess and Cousens have not proposed any date for the cave (1897: 113). It does not have much architectural or sculptural wealth. The two icons of standing Jinas are quite crude and therefore difficult to compare stylistically. The pillar is very much like the pillars found in the structural temples, though quite plain. The snake hood on the bracket capital. the adhisthäna like mouldings on the fronts of platforms in the court, doorway with mandaraka flanked by kirtimukhas, use of lozenge motif in the steps and the occurrence of niches for keeping the loose icons, as also the two loose sculptures are some of the features comparable with Ankai-Tankai and Tringalwadi. Thus, the cave can be approximately dated to the 12th century CE.
DAULATABAD, AURANGABAD TALUKA, AURANGABAD DISTRICT (19°57'17 N; 75°15'43' E)
The hill fort of Daulatabad is situated 13 km from Aurangabad. There are a few caves in the eastern escarpment of the fort, facing east. These are about 100m south of Kalakot, which is the innermost fortification wall of the fort. The caves are excavated in the ridge of the hill along the moat. These were excavated before the hill was fortified and provided with moat during the Muslim period. At present, there is no proper road to reach the caves. The rough path to the caves is so overgrown with vegetation that the caves are accessible and visible only in the dry season.
There are five caves, numbered from south to north and are in a very bad state of preservation (Plate 135). The caves are quite plain with empty shrines and no other sculptures. Therefore, it is very difficult to determine their religious affiliation. Of these, Cave III is assumed to be Jaina because of the presence of twenty-four niches and small figures of seated Jina on two of the pillars.
Cave I has a hall and a shrine, while the second cave has a hall and three shrines in the back wall of the hall. Cave IV and V are unfinished. In the later period, when the fort was built, these caves were used for defense purposes as suggested by the stepped passage leading to the moat, cut in the left shrine of Cave II and a small excavation also leading to the moat, in the right sidewall of Cave I.
Wilson suspected the existence of the caves in this fort, but could not provide any information (1847-48: 79-80). However, the first description of these caves along with the critical dating was provided by Pathy and Dhavalikar (1987: 191-195). The caves were briefly described and assigned a date by Mate and Pathy (23-24).
