Mahavira Jain Vidyalay Suvarna Mahotsav Granth Part 1

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

Page 842

SOME EARLY JAINA TEMPLES IN WESTERN INDIA : 343
distance to the south of the last one. Its pītha shows the usual Māru-Gurjara mouldings, though its mandovara (wall) bears no images except on kumbha. These two temples were extensively repaired during later times. The remaining Jaina temples are later bearing and thus are not pertinent to our discussions. VII JAINA TEMPLES AT NADOL
Nadol or Naddula as it was known in the mediaeval period was the seat of the powerful Cāhamāna principality from the middle of tenth century as already alluded to in the foregoing pages. The late tenth century seems to be a period of considerable prosperity and as much architectural magnificence for Nadol as attested by a number of monuments—theistic and secular-still found at Nadol in varying degrees of preservation. To this phase of architectural activities belong the famed temple of Neminātha the jagati of which is old, the shrine proper being a replacement in the second quarter of eleventh century as suggested by its mouldings and the typology and jāla work of the śikhara. In the later reconstruction a few older fragments of the original tenth century shrine bearing Dikpālas and vyālas were reutilized. Some are seen fixed in the compound wall also. The back view illustrated here gives the idea of how it looks like (Fig. 19). The Mūlaprāsāda is not large, only 4.57 M in width. It is built according to the tenets of the Māru-Gurjara style of temple architecture. In the śikhara the rathikās preserve the original images of Yaksis, Cakreśvarī in the south and Nirvāṇi in the west can be seen in their original position. The Gūdhamandapa, some 6.8 M in width, shows the mouldings as undecorated as those of the Mülaprāsāda and its interior deserves little comment. The Trika too is not interesting. Originally the shrine possessed the usual twenty-four Devakulikās that have diappeared in antiquity. The Valanaka is old but plain.
The second Jaina temple, of śāntinātha, which faces east, seems to have been erected in the middle of eleventh century; but the present fabric is a haphazard rebuilding at some date, possibly in the seventeenth century. The principal niches of the sanctum are vacant; but on the karņas are found, curiously enough, the female forms of the Dikpālas. On the pratirathas are seen Vidyādevis, Gauri among them is clearly identifiable.70 The Gūdhamandapa is plain. One
70 A Yakṣi with vara, parašu, mudgara and kuņņikā with gaja as the
vehicle and another one with varadakşa, trisula, nāga and bijapūraka are not traceable in the texts.