________________
Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Nava-graha or lords of nine planets. These are the Sun and the Moon and five planets, and the ascending and descending nodes of the moon..
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
The nine figures are rather coarsely carved and have suffered from age, damp. and possibly violence. The right are Rahu-the ascending node-represented by a head (the Dragons' head of western phraseology), and Ketu, who has a head with the tail of a fish, representing the descending node (or Dragon's tail).
The figures of two-armed Sun and Moon wear Kiritamukuta on their heads and are flanked by a devotee on their either sides. Both of them hold lotuses in their hands. The four-armed figures of Mangala, Bṛhaspati, Šukra and Sani, wear a Karanda Mukuta and are flaked by a devotee on their either sides except Sani, on whose right is a figure of a bull.
Mangala (Mars) holds amkuśa (elephant-goad) noose (pāśa) in his upper right and left hands respectively, similarly Brhaspati holds a pen (Lekhini), scripture (a book), Šukra amṛta-kumbha (nector-pot) and a shaft (Danda) and Sani amkuśa (goad) and Gadā (club) in their upper hands. The lower right hand of all these deities are in varada (boon-giving) posture and with the corresponding left they hold a kamaṇḍalu (a pitcher).
The figure of Rähu (ascending node) is two-armed, the right one being held in Abhaya posture, with the left he holds Kumbha (pot). The two hands of Ketu are folded, probably in Añjali-mudrā.
In one of the niches on the right side of the upper landing is a Sanskrit inscription of S. V. 1555 (A.D. 1499) of 27 lines which falls in the reign of Mahammad Begadā. It narrates that it was constructed by Virsimha Väghela's queen named Ruḍā. The last four lines of this inscription are in old Gujarati.21
Bai Harir's Väva (Dädä Hari's Väva), Ahmedabad.
This Vāva is situated at Asārvā, Supurb of Ahmedabad. It was constructed by certain lady, who is described in Sanskrit inscription placed in the first landing on the south or the left side of the descent, as Bai Śri Harir, the chief superintendent (Dādā) at the entrance of the Royal apartments. This epigraph is dated in S. V. 1556 (A.D. 1499). Again, in the north wall, opposite to former one, is another inscription, in Arabic which speaks of this building as constructed during the reign of Mahmuda Begada.
44
This Vāva runs east to west. From The west side of the draw-well to the pavilion at the entrance on the east end it measures over all 241'-6" feet and from the first step of the descent towards the well to the same point, 215'-6". The width of the landing is 16-2" and the stairs nearly 18'-6". But round the octagonal shaft near the west end, it widens into a square of 24 feet.
સામીપ્ય : પુ. ૨૫, અંક ૩-૪, ઓક્ટો. ૨૦૦૮
For Private and Personal Use Only
-
માર્ચ, ૨૦૦૯
