Temple of Satrunjaya

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

Page 89

all records of the past; for when the Tapas had the ascendancy, they tore down the inscribed tablets of the Kharataras, and replaced them by their own, which again were broken into fragments, when, during the reign of Siddha Raja, the Kharataras had power." The consequence is that no entire structure on the hill can lay claim even to a moderate antiquity, all have been rebuilt or repaired and altered.
The great temple is, on the whole, an imposing edifice, but so very similar in plan to all the other temples of the class that description is almost unnecessary. It differs from the Caumukh mainly in the maṇḍapa being of two stories, and in the absence of the veranda round the outside of the gambhārā, but it is surrounded by little cells or shrines-not parts of the original design, but added by votaries in later times. And so closely is it hemmed in on every side, that it is impossible to get a view of the whole temple at once, except from the front. Looking up at the spire, especially from the passage round its base, the spectator is struck by the strong resemblance it bears to an erection of wood; indeed it can hardly be credited that such a structure, so carved, could ever have been devised in stone; it must originally have been simply a copy of what had first been made only in wood.
The statue of Rsabhadeva in the shrine is of colossal size, with the usual crystal eyes, a golden collar and bracelets, and a crown. The other statues are very numerous: besides the great image, there are fifty-five smaller Tirthankaras in the shrine, and a much larger number in the ranga mandapa, besides two kausaggiyas standing beside Adinatha: Nabhiraja, and Marudevi-seated as usual on a marble elephant near the door of the shrine; and a Jugaliya111 also on an elephant. In the upper story there are, in the gambhārā, besides thirty-three images of the Tirthankaras, one of Gautama Svami, one of Mahalaksmi, two tapasvis or ascetics, and two pairs of feet; and in the maṇḍapa, nienty-three of Tirthankaras and two tapasvis-a goodly assemblage of two hundred and seventy-four objects of adoration.
Colonel Tod quotes a list of erections, derived apparently from some native source, which probably applies to the successive restorations
141
74
The Jainas entertain the notion that in the reproduction of the world in the first ara of the sarpini period, from a cave in a mountain fourteen pairs sprang into existence from a former seed; these were the Yugaliyas-so called from being born, living, and dying in pairs. They were free from the baser passions, and were furnished with all they required, as food, clothing etc., by ten trees called Kalpavrksa. In the third ara cf the sarpini period the fruits of these trees fail and a Jinesvara appears to teach men the arts. Nabhi Raja and Marudevi were Yugalas.-Conf. Hemacandra, Abhidh. Cint., 132-135.