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The Door-Frame of the Garbhagriha
349 Above the door lintel there is a panel of niches containing sculptures of probably Śiva, Vişņu and Brhamā in sitting postures with standing female attendants. The niches are superimposed with the stepped pyramidal pediment.
Some of the fragments of the door-frame of the extinct Somanatha temple, now, preserved in the museum at Somanathpatan display the fact that the original shrine door-frame had been removed and a very plain patched up one was substituted, as Cousins thought. It contained the door-step (the black stone Candrašilā ) flanked on either side by a conch and a conventionalised tortoise and the latter contracted door-frame with two steps partly superimposed in the earlier Candrašila (moon-stone) 8
Thc Jambs of the door-frame of the garbhagriha of Limboji mātā temple at Delmal :9 contain five vertical sections each. The sections on the opening side of the door have a running flower and creeper pattern. The central section have three niches on each side in which the Devi figures in sitting posture surrounded by their female attendants are carved. The sections on the side of the wall are carved with the lotus petal design.
At the base of the jambs the central sections contain standing Devi sculptures with their female attendants in pairs, while the sections on the side of the walls are decked with amorous sculptures. Below the base touching the surface of the threshold there are female dancers in various postures.
The threshold contains an usual semi-circular step projected with grāsa on either side.
The lintel has the figure of Ganesa in the centre. A panel above consists of five niches contains sculptures of Devis in sitting postures flanked by their standing female attendants.
7. SMTK. p. 14-16. 8. Vide; 'Somnath the shrine Eternal', Plt. XXXI. 9. AANG. Plt. LXVII.
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