________________
Description and Chronology of Caves
237
There are traces of thick, white plaster on all the panels, probably of a much later date.
Date
These caves can be dated to late 12th-early 13th century CE on the basis of architectural, iconographic and stylistic features. The inscription on the cushion of the Parsvanatha icon in J27 is dated in the Saka year 1156 (1234-35 CE) and records the donation of a Parsvanatha image by Chakresvara, a resident of Vardhanapura (Burgess and Indraji 1881: 99-100). The other caves are almost contemporary to this colossal.
Architecturally, these caves are very simple. In fact, J5 and J32 are quite crude and only J30 follows some sort of plan. The pillars in this cave are quite simple, though somewhat similar to those in the structural temples of Maharashtra. The phāmsanā śikharas of J31 and J32 are very similar to the sikhāra of a sculptured niche on a boulder at Panhale (Deshpande 1986: Plate 33). The large elephants, flanking J30 were obviously carved in imitation of the Indra Sabha. But the presence of warriors and musicians between the legs of the animal is unusual. This kind of the representation has a parallel in a monolithic figure of elephant from Banavasi, where the animal is shown running, with a mahout in front and some warriors following it. One of the warriors is carved between the legs of the elephant. The sculpture belongs to the late Chalukya period and is dated to the 12th century CE (Sivaramamurti 1983: Plate 191).
The iconography in these caves is quite developed. The Jina figures in all the caves, except J27, are in padmāsana. The srivatsa is present in almost all the cases, except J32, where the sculptures are very eroded. The Jina parikara is similar to the earlier caves at the site. However, the new features are elephants lustrating the Jina as found in J5 and presence of the lanchhana in as many as three cases, two Rsabhanātha icons in J5 and one Santinatha icon in J32. Most of the icons are either tri or pañchatirthika. None of the caves have large figures of Sarvānubhuti-Ambika. In J5, only Ambika is present, while in J32 only one of the icons has individual pair of Sarvānubhuti-Ambikā. DhāranendraPadmavati are present as yakşa-yakși of Parsvanātha in J27, while Padmavati is depicted as the yakși of Parsvanatha in J5. Interestingly, Gomukha, the yaksa of the first tirthankara, Rsabhanatha appears as an independent deity in J30. All these features suggest a late date. The appearance of Parsvanatha-Bahubali panels in J32 at such a late date indicates the popularity of the theme, at the site, probably because of earlier examples. A feature, which does not fit in the pattern of the iconogrphic evolution, is the ardhapadmāsana of Parsvantha in J27 and the appearance of thrones with only wheellions in J32 at such a late date.
Of these caves, J5 was earliest owing to its placement near the earlier group, probably excavated in the late 12th century CE. The next undertaking in 1234-35 CE was perhaps the large icon of Parsvanātha on the top of the hill. The shift in the location, away from the already existing group of the caves, was perhaps necessitated by the nature of the icon. There is no proper rock face available near the lower caves for carving such a large icon. At present, the icon is covered by the structure, but the gigantic icon must have been a spectacular sight even from a distance, when it was open to the sky. The
