Jaina Rock Cut Caves In Western India Part 01

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

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Jaina Rock-cut Caves in Western India
Cave VII
To the southwest of the above cave is the last cave of the site, consisting only of a verandah, which is 18m wide and has ten pillars and two pilasters. The back of verandah is not finished as the excavation was abandoned in the preliminary stage.
On the friezes over the pillars, are carved various scenes, which are identified by Burgess as Vaisnava. (Burgess 1878: 10 and Plate VIII). Each scene is in a compartment and scene alternates with a composite animal. One scene has a male with flute (Krisna?), two figures milking a cow and one figure churning the butter. In another scene is a fat man lifting something with both the hands. In one scene a man is seated on a low pedestal with an attendant and a fat dwarf. Behind these are three women and a child. In another scene is a woman standing cross-legged. Other scenes are too damaged to make out anything other than a few figures.
Date
These caves have been dated variously by the scholars. While Burgess dates them to about 650 CE (1878: 11), Naik dates them to 600 to 650 CE (1947: 355), Dhavalikar to the end of the 5th century (1968b: 406) and Spink dates Cave II between 480 to 500 CE (1967: Time chart).
The caves are very similar to the Buddhist caves of 5th-6th century CE in terms of ground plan, pillar type, decorative motifs on the pillars as well as doorways and the treatment of shrine icon.
Ground Plan: The ground plan of Cave II and III is like a Buddhist chaitya-vihāra. The chaitya-vihariis with a pillared verandah, an almost square pillared hall, cells around the hall and the shrine on back wall are found at a number of sites like Ajanta, Bagh and Ghatotkacha. But the unique feature of these two caves at Dhārashiva is the presence of enclosed courtyard. Cave II even has a doorway leading to the court. None of the Buddhist caves of the age at any other site has such courtyard. Another rare feature is the arrangement of pillars in two squares in the hall of Cave II. Most of the chiatya-vihāras have pillars arranged in a single square. However, the lower storey hall of Cave VI at Ajanta has sixteen pillars arranged in two squares (Fergusson and Burgess 1880: Plate XXXII). The vihāra at Bagh has a square of twenty-eight pillars, while inside is another square of four pillars (Spink 1976-77: Fig. 7). The entrance to the hall through three doors in Caves II and III has parallels in a number of caves at Ajanta and the large vihara at Ghatotkach.
Gaņa figures: The gaņa figures as found on the plinth of Cave II appear from the earliest times and continue till medieval times. But this feature becomes very common in the Vakataka and Chalukyan art. The front of the plinth in Cave XXVI at Ajanta has corpulent gana figures, engaged in various activities. (Yazdani 1942 Vol. III: Plate LXXXIXa). A Vakataka shrine at Ramtek in Nagpur district also has a railing carved with ganas. (Jamkhedkar 1987: Fig. 9). The plinths of Caves I, II and III at Badami carry such gaņa figures (Tarr 1970: Figs 7, 8, 9). The feature also occurs in the adhisthāna of