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CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE, ETC.
115
Gersoppa; a plan of the latter is given on the opposite page. The following description of the former by Walhouse is also worth reproduction :
'On a broad rocky platform below the hill on the side next the town stands a remarkable Jain temple, much differing from the ordinary Hindu style; square with a projecting columned portico facing each of the four quarters. The columns, quadrangular for a third part of their height, pass into rounded sections, separated by cable bands, and have the sides and sections richly decorated with deities, and most graceful and intricate arabesque designs, rosettes and stars, leaf and scroll work, in endless combination, all made out of the carver's brain, wrought almost as finely as Chinese ivory work. The friezes and pediments round the porticoes and temples are ornamented in like manner, and frequently a stone in the wall displays some quaint wonderfully well-cut device; a hundred-petalled flower disc, two serpents inextricably intertwined, or a grotesque head surrounded with fruitage. The temple is roofed with immense overlapping flag-stones, and bore some sort of cupola now ruined in the centre. On the massive folding doors of one of the portals being rolled back, a strange sight is disclosed. In a large square recess, immediately facing the entrance stand three life-sized images of burnished copper, the counterparts of the great statue on the hill above, each resembling each, and looking weird and unearthly in the gloom of the adytum as the light through the opening doors falls upon them. A like triad stands within each of the other three entrances'. 153
Details of the interiors of other Jaina temples also reveal an almost confusing variety of figures, decorations, and symbols, To give but one illustration, in the Markuļi temple, already referred to, the main image of Adiśvara is seated in Yogamudra, palm on palm, and crossed legs in the front. Behind him is a prabhavali built against the wall. On either side are standing figures of Bahubali and Pārsvanatha with a serpent of five boods
153 Cf. Sturrock, op. cit,, p. 90.
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