Temple of Satrunjaya

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

Page 85

different ages may be recognized in different parts of it, and some of them are probably as old as any now on the hill-perhaps dating even from the twelfth or thirteenth century. It is divided into a series of small crypt like apartments, mostly square in plan, but with the corners arched over so as to permit of an architrave to be carried round an octagon over which the dome rises. The domes are elaborately carved and some of them have pendentives of considerable beauty. The recesses cut off at the corners of the square have generally two marble images. The central shrine is peculiar: an opening in the floor enables us to look down to an image in the sunk story, right in front is a second, some what smaller, and in a sort of attic there is a third of still less size; the sinhāsanas, etc. of each image are elaborately carved. The pillars of this part of the building have pretty high bases, fully one-third of the shaft is above which it changes first to an octagon, then to sixteen sides, and above a narrow circular belt, it returns through the octagon to the square under the bracket of the capital. Those in the central shrine have a short of dwarf column above, surmounted by a deep architrave.
Behind this pile which occupies an area of about 96 feet by 48 feet there is a large covered tank.
Plates 34, 35 : Various Temples
As we proceed westwards, we pass a very white temple, on the right hand side, covered by a dome. A few steps lead up to the door, on each side of which the wall is divided into panels of perforated stone. This is the temple of Sah Virdhichand Gulabchand of Gwalior, built in 1852. It is extremely cramped in its dimensions and, architecturally, it may be considered a failure; but a step inside the door, you find there is an inner temple, formed of thin slabs of white marble, which the outer building only serves to protect. On each side of the entrance of this inner temple, are carved upon the wall two curious figures illustrative of Jaina cosmogony and topography. In the Meru-aştāpada Ravana figures prominently, and the visitor observes among the multitude of figures one represented flying the sun as a kite. On the other side is Samet Sikhar—done in a way that looks peculiarly Chinese. Entering the inner apartment, we find it nearly wholly occupied by a model of a temple of marble placed on a beautiful pedestal, and a black figure of Parsvanatha (whose proper complexion however is blue) with Candraprabha, the eighth Tirthankara, in white marble, sitting before him.
On the south side there is a large temple with five gambhārās built by Sah Kuvarji Ladha of Bhavnagar in 1758, and next to it another large one, also facing the north, built by Motichand Sivchand of Ajmer in
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