Some Early Jaina Temples in Western India

Author(s): M A Dhaky
Publisher: Z_Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_Mahotsav_Granth_Part_1_012002.pdf and Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_

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rūpastambhas are: Rohini, an unidentified divinity (with trident, lotus, citron fruit, and peacock as its vehicle), Nirvāni, Vajränkuśā, Cakreśvari, Mahāmānasi, Manası, a goddess with boar vehicle and shield, sword, etc. as her attributes, Vairotyā, and Yakṣī on bhadrāsana with lotus in each of her two arms. Curiously, all the divinities on the two doorframes ride directly over their respective vehicle.
The Rangamandapa of the temple is featureless. The Devakulikās, built at the close of tenth century, are almost uninteresting. Only those on the north face have a janghà decorated with Vidyādevis, Dikpālas and vyālas.
As for the date of the Main Temple, BHANDARKAR thought that the wall mouldings are as old as eleventh century.56 In point of fact the original parts of the temple are still older, of the mid-tenth century as the comparison with the Ambikā temple (961) at Jagat and other contemporaneous shrines doubtless indicate.57 The informed sources say that the image in the sanctum once had a pedestal bearing a date equivalent to 954 which supports the above-noted conclusion.
The Mahāvīra temple, as we look back and estimate, is one of the notable examples of the Medapāța school of the Māru-Gurjara style of architecture. Its rich iconography which includes the oldest known example of Brahmaśānti Yakşa58 is equally significant.
IV NAVALAKHĀ PĀRSVANĀTHA TEMPLE AT PALI
Pali, Pallikā of the mediaeval period, seems to be a town of some consequence, indicated by its monumental remains, but also by its being the germinal land of Pallivāla brahmins as well as Pallivāla banias and the Pallivāla gaccha of the Svetāmbara Canon. To the architectural history of Western India Pali's contribution is of some significance, Pali being located on the crossroads of the two contemporaneous styles-Mahā-Māru and Mahā-Gurjara-and, the three out of its four extant temples are illustrative of three different stylistic
56 'Progress Report of the Archaeological Survey of India, Western
Circle,' 1908, p. 59. 57 AGRAWAL, R. C., Khajuraho of Rajasthan, The Temple of Ambika at
Jagat, 'Ars Asiatiques', Tome X, 1964, Fascicule 1; also DHAKY
(1961), plates VII-VIII illustrating old temples at Kotai, in Kutch. 58 For detailed information on Brahmaśānti Yakşa, consult SHAH,
U. P., Brahmaśānti and Kapardi Yakşas, 'Journal of the M. S. University of Baroda', Vol. VII, No. 1.