Temple of Satrunjaya

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

Page 73

pedestal. The marble is from Makhrana in Marwad. The aspect of these, and of all the images, is peculiar, frequently on the brow and middle of the breast there is a brilliant, set in silver or gold, and almost always, the breasts are mounted with one of the precious metals, whilst there are occasionally gold plates on the shoulders, elbow, and knee joints, and a crown on the head,--that on the principal one in the Motisah being a very elegant and massive gold one. But the peculiar feature is the eyes, which seem to peer at you from every chapel like those of so many cats: they are made of silver overlaid with pieces of glass, very clumsily cemented on, and in every case projecting so far and of such a form as to give one the idea of their all wearing spectacles with lenticular glasses over very watery eyes in diseased sockets.
In small niches (gokhlā) in the walls of the shrine and antarāla, there are many marble images, the inventory of the custodians enumerates in all-“forty-four images (pratima) of Mulana yaka Sri Adinatha, including those in the niches, one of Seth and Sethani, fifty-four images of stone and metal in the omkāra and hrnkāra (right and left sides) of the pätia (or plate), four pañcatirthi126 of metal, and five siddha-cakra."
The walls of the shrine, having to support the tower, are very thick and contain cells or chapels opening from the veranda: thus the doors into the shrine stand back into the wall. There are ten cells of various sizes, those at the corners open on two sides, and all contain pedestals
images, but only one on each side, on the west side has seven. There is also a cell on each side, of the porch on the east, one enshrining an image of Cakresvari Mata, and the other one, of Gomukha Yaksa.
The pillars that support the veranda deserve notice: they are of the general form everywhere prevalent here,---square columns, to the sides of which we might suppose very thin pilasters of about three-fifths the breadth had been applied. The diagram on the margin may represent the plan of such a column, and it deserves notice that this, or some simple modification of it, supplies the plan alike of the column, the temple, the tower, and the sinhāsana. It is readily reducible to an octagon, and a sixteensided polygon, and thence to a circle. The pillars of the Caumukh have high bases, the shafts carved with flower patterns each different from its fellow, the usual bracket capitals slanting downwards on each side and supporting gopis, on whose heads rest the abacus, or rather these figures, 126 The pancatirthi is a plate of metal, on the centre of which is engraved a figure
of a Tirthankara, at each side of which is a standing figure of Kaosagiya, and over the heads of these latter two more sitting figures. The plate is square below and has three points above.
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