Jaina Rock Cut Caves In Western India Part 01

Author(s): Viraj Shah
Publisher: Agam Kala Prakashan

Page 47

Description and Chronology of Caves Description
Cave I
It is an unfinished excavation on the western fringes of the row of four caves to the north of the ravine. It consists of a verandah and an unfinished hall. In front of the cave is an open court, around 6m wide and 11.4m deep. The verandah, measuring 7.8m by 2.1m, has two pillars and two corresponding pilasters with rough square shafts and plain brackets. The floor and the ceiling are uneven. The hall has been only roughly and partially hewn out. Each door from the verandah leads to a separate compartment, as the partition walls have been only partly relieved from the ceiling. The pillars are marked out as rough blocks near back wall.
The only icon in the cave is a loose chaumukha, of a much later date than the cave. Resting against the back wall of the central compartment, this chaumukha has a figure of Jina standing on a plain triangular pedestal with a round halo and three curls on shoulders, on southern and eastern faces. The lower portion of the figure on the eastern face is destroyed. There are no figures on the other two faces of the chaumukha and are probably destroyed. The curls on the shoulders of the Jina would indicate that it is an icon of Rsabhanatha, but since the other Jina on the eastern face also has curls, the identification may not be accurate. It is difficult to believe that both the Jinas were meant to be Rşabhanātha because usually each face of the chaumukha has a different Jina. However, in some parts of Maharashtra all the Jinas were depicted with hair falling down on the shoulders during the 11th 12th centuries CE. Since this icon can stylistically be dated to this period, it is possible that this figure follows the contemporary norm.
Cave II
To the east of the above cave is the largest cave of the site, numbered II. On ground plan it has a half enclosed, roofless court, verandah, hall with cells and shrine (Fig. 3).
A number of features of this cave were not noticed earlier by Burgess as the court was then filled with earth, while certain other features as noticed by Burgess, have disappeared with the passage of time. Among the latter are a part of the facade carved with a series of seated Jinas in square compartment with a row of chaitva-window ornament above them and the pediment of the entrance into the court, carved with a sitting figure of a Jina flanked by a näga figure. (Burgess 1878: 5, 8). While among the former are features like plinth carved with gana figures and a round structure on a square base in the left portion of the court.
The court is entered through a doorway, rounded on the top. Flanking the doorway on outer side is a dvārapala (Plate 2), while on the upper rounded portion is a seated figure of Parsvanatha on the inner side (Plate 3). Leaving a path in the centre with a flight of thirteen steps leading to the verandah, the court is about 1.4m higher than the ground level. In the centre of the left side of the court is a round structure on a square base. It seems to be a stūpa, partially destroyed due to the disintegration of the rock. It is a sizable structure with the square base measuring around 4.7m along sides and 0.5m high and the rounded portion reaching up to the height of 1.5 m (Plate 4).