Temple of Satrunjaya

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

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building extends some distance beyond the end of this.124 The body of the temple consists of two square apartments with a square porch or maṇḍapa to the east, from which a few steps ascend to the door of the antarāla or hall, 31 feet 2 inches square inside, with a vaulted roof rising from twelve pillars, each 16 inches square. These pillars are so arranged that, omitting those at the corners, the remaining eight form a regular octagon, thus providing for the roofing of the dome in the usual Indian style,125 and, as in the temple of Vimala Sah at Mount Abu, the circular courses of the dome rest immediately on the architrave of the octagon. Behind each column, a pilaster projects 8 inches from the wall leaving an aisle 2 feet 8 inches wide all round. Besides the principal entrance on the east, this hall has a door on each side opening out into a porch upon the platform, and at the back it has a fourth door, leading into the shrine or garbha gṛha-the gambhārā, as the Jainas call it, 23 feet square with four columns at the corners of the marble throne (sinhasana) of the image. Corresponding to these are eight pilasters against the walls; and it deserves mention that the distance between the columns in the shrine corresponds with that between the central pairs in the hall, whilst the pilasters are in a line with the side row of columns in the hall, and again the pillars of the three porches correspond to the central pillars inside. Over the shrine rises the tower or vimana to a height of 96 feet from the level of the pavement. The shrine in Hindu temples is always dark and entered. only by the single small door in front; Jaina temples, on the contrary, have very frequently several entrances to the shrine. In this instance, as in that of most of the larger Caumukh temples, besides the door from the antarala, three other large doors open out into porticoes on the platform-a veranda being carried round this part of the building from one door to another.
The shrine contains a sinhāsana or pedestal for the image, in this temple; it is of the purest white marble, fully two feet high and twelve feet square. Each face has a centre panel, elaborately carved, and three of less breadth on each side, the nearer the centre always a little in advance of that outside it.
On the throne sit four large white marble figures of Adinatha not specially well proportioned-each facting one of the doors of the shrine, whence the temple derives the name of Caumukh. These are large figures, perhaps as large as any on the hill: they sit with their feet crossed in front, after the true Bauddha style, the outer side of each thigh joining that of his fellow, and their heads rising ten or eleven feet above the
124
The accompanying plan of this temple at the end will show its arrangements. 125 See Fergusson, History of Architecture, Vol. II. p. 553.
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