________________
Plates 25 to 30: The Motisah, etc.
Outside the front entrance of the Motisah, on the left hand, is a tank or kund with a small shrine of Kuntiji, the mother of the Pandavas.135 The enclosure or tuk itself, which is 231 feet by 224 feet, is surrounded by a lofty wall with round towers at the corners, and is entered by a gate under a massive square projecting tower on the east side; inside the entrance of which, as in many other cases, we ascend by a few steps to the level of the enclosure within. This magnificent square, filled with temples, was constructed in 1835-1836, principally at the expense of Seth Motisah Amichand, a wealthy merchant and banker of Bombay, and his relatives, and is said to have cost four or five lakhs of rupees. On entering the tuk the principal temple faces the visitor. It is of the same plan as the Balabhai temple, and its extreme dimensions are 67 feet wide by 81 feet from east to west. On each side of the steps leading up to the front entrance are two small shrines, the one of Cakresvari Mata, the other of Gomukha Yaksa; the north and south entrances are approached by flights of steps from the east, landing in the porches-the stairs leading to the upper story being behind these porches. All the porches have arches on three sides and that in front has within the arch an elaborately carved double bracket or toraṇa, and the entrance is guarded on either side by dvarapalas. The principal image in the gambhārā is not quite so large as in the Caumukh, and wears a massive embattled crown of gold. The temple is furnished with two hundred and five images, siddha-cakras,
etc.
Over the entrance and facing the principal temple, is as usual, that of Pundarikji Ganadhara, over the front of which is a sort of square pavilion, similar to the porches, and open on all sides.
To the north and south of the principal temple there are two pretty large temples on each side; in the four corners of the enclosure there are smaller ones; and along the back there are some five more small ones. One on the south side is a temple of Sahasrakuta, with its thousand and twenty-four little figures on the representation of the mountain, besides other images in the upper story, etc. It was erected by Navalchand Galalchand of Bombay. To the north of the gate on the west side, is a temple by Khusalchand Tarachand of Surat, containing besides twelve images of Caumukhji, etc., 1542 pairs of feet of the Ganadharas, and seven other images of stone and metal. A little to the north of it we again meet a small temple with the paduka of Adinatha under the
135
"Tradition says it was executed at her command, while her sons were exiles in the forest of Virat."-Tod, Travels, p.282.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
67
www.jainelibrary.org
