Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

Author(s): Mahavir Jain Vidyalaya Mumbai
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 741

266 : SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
designs of scrolls, någas in añjali-mudrā, mithunas and two pilasters containing scrolls of different designs, the inner one being stencilled and the outer one in relief. The mithunas alternate with bhūtas or pāśa-like design. The lalăța-bimba shows an image of Cakreśvari riding on Garuda. She is eight-armed and holds spiral lotus-stalk in the lower right hand, the objects in the other right hands being indistinct. In three of her left hands she holds lotus, cakra and ball-like object which may represent a fruit. The door-jambs show at the base figures of Gangā on the left and Yamunā on the right, each river-goddess being flanked by attendants and two dvärapålas wearing kirītamukuţa. While two of the dvārapālas face east, the remaining two are placed, juxtaposed to each other in the passage of the doorway. Gangă is flanked by a female umbrella-bearer and a dwarf female carrying a net suspended from the right hand. Above the head of the umbrella-bearer on a lotus-stalk pedestal are seen miniature figures comprising a seated god flanked on each side by a seated attendant and a standing cauri-bearer. This group is flanked on each side by a vidyadhara seated on lotus leaves issuing from the same stalk. Yamunā is also flanked by a female figure carrying a large round ornamental gada and a dwarf female carrying a net in her left hand. Above the head of the female gadā-bearer occurs on a lotus pedestal a similar group of five figures, the central figure being a sage seated in padmāsana with the right hand in the vyakhyană mudrā. Above this group occurs a group of vidyadhara figures carrying flute, vīņā, drums and garlands and seated on lotus leaves issuing from the same stalk. The door-sill is carved centrally with lotus-stalks entwining dwarf ganas, and is also embellished with crocodiles and elephants, symbolising Dig-gajas. On the extreme ends occur a couple of devotees flanked by lions.
Mandapa
The mandapa is centrally supported on 'four pillars. Its ceiling (Fig. 5) is octagonal and probably of the sama-kşipta variety, consisting of four diminishing courses of gajatālus of which only the fringes have survived. The lintels and the architraves of the mandaca ceiling are decorated with two rows of miniature shrines, which are repeated on the architraves of the ardha-mandapa and antarala where they alternate with chess-pattern. The inner walls of the mandapa are bare, except for two purely decorative blind windows. Against the southern wall of the mandapa has been placed centrally a colossal standing image of Jina flanked by two seated male devotees,