________________
Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
296
OLD BRĀHMI INSCRIPTIONS
If an inference can at all be drawn from the last mentioned fact, it will certainly be this that the underlying motive in the fashioning of the animal and creature shapes of the rock-cut caves was to represent the principal denizens of the Kumāri hill and to limit these shapes to them. Anyhow, the elephants, tigers, cobras, pythons and frogs are still the chief denizens of the two hills of Udayagiri and Khandagiri.
We are unable to unravel the mystery of the Frog-cave being otherwise known as Jambesvara-Gumphā. But it is certain that the ChotaHāthi Gumpbā came to be otherwise known as Haridas-Gum phā on account of the fact that this cave was once tenanted by a Vaişņava ascetic known by the name of Haridās.
Among the remaining names, Ganesa-Gumphā may engage our first attention. This name which, like Haridās-Gumphā, is of Hindu origin, must have been suggested by the figures of two calves of elephants set up in the court-yard in front of the cave concerned. It was easy for the neighbouring Hindu inhabitants to associate these figures with Ganesa, the elephant-faced god of the Hindu pantheon.
The name of the Ananta-Gumphā on the Khandagiri hill appears to have been suggested by the figures of the pairs of crawling tripleheaded snakes lying over the arch-fronts of the cave which are ornamented with various reliefs containing, among others, one standing figure of Gaja-Lakşmi, the Hindu goddess of Luck. A Vaishnavite must have been easily led by their association with a figure of Lakşmi, the consort of Vişņu, to identify the trip le-headed snake with the famous Ananta or seşa-nāga of his legend. Thus it may be proved that the name AnantaGumphā, too, was of Hindu origin, and that it must have come into existence when the Vaishnavite Hindu ascetics occupied some of the Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves.
A more convincing proof of the Hindu origin of some of the names can be adduced from the modern designations of three caves forming a group on the Khaņdagiri hill. Of these three caves, one is known as Navamuni on account of the fact that the figures of nine Hindu sages were set up on the walls of the cave in parallel with those of twenty-four Jaina Tirthařkaras set up, as recorded in a medieval inscription of the 6th or 7th century A.D. or of still later period in one of these caves, by King Udyota-Keśari of the Kesari dynasty ; another is known as Durgā-Gumphā on account of the fact that the figures of the Hindu goddess Durgā came to be set up at the entrance of the cave containing on its walls in the interior the figures of twenty-four Tirtharkaras set up by
For Private And Personal Use Only
