Temple of Satrunjaya

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

Page 93

He made a golden vessel on the top of the caitya, with a point piercing heaven. It was fifty-two cubits high, within one cubit of heaven. Laksmi was qutie outdone. The 1245 golden vessels, like the vessels in the forehead of the sacred elephtans, shine in this temple like suns compelled by the force of Rahu to minister to his glory; twenty-nine lions seem ready to destroy at once all the elephants assailing them. Four Yoginis appear in beauty like the four quarters of heaven, in attendance in the temple. The regents of the compass appear in this temple like religious worshippers, seventy-two windows admit the fragrance like seventy-two flowers filling the world with odour. Four arches appear like four faces of the deity in creative power. Four saints in the temple are like four incarnations of religion. Thirty-two images at the door, more beautiful than the wife of Indra, are like wives looking out for their husbands. Thirty-two wreaths hanging from the lintel are like the regular teeth of women. Twenty-four elephants large as mountains are like twenty-four deities come in this form to worship. Seventy-four pillars, high as Meru, are like all the (64) Indras with the (100) regents of the compass to pay homage. In the year S. 1649 he was favoured with help of Vrija Thakur, as a garden is refreshed with rain, and to the delight of all, appeared the building of this wise man like the caitya in Astapada. May this caitya in Satrunjaya called Nandavardhana like the four cait yas, Dharmamedini, Bhujangesa, Prinita, and Visvastupa, bestow on us our desires. On hearing the cost of this noble building men exclaim, Teja pala must be in possession of the wishing-tree.
In the year S. 1650 Tejapala called a meeting at Satrunjaya, and with the help of his Guru dedicated this caitya on an auspicious day of the Vijaya year. Seeing the caitya, all men rejoice, as lilies when they see the sun, or as the sea at full moon, or as peacocks in rain. Sri Ramji gladly made a new square caitya, by the command of the Thakur, Prottun Ganjasa Kujjaraja made a second, Mulasresthi a third, and Nikama a fourth. The enclosure with those four caityas filling the world with light, like pearls strung together, made the top of Satrunjaya like the syargaloka of Indra. The caitya was adorned by the art of the chief carpenter Wasta, from whom Visvakarma himself might take lessons. Hema Vijaya the pupil of the virtuous Kamala Vijaya composed this eulogium adorned with beauties as a woman with jewels. May it remain for ever famous. Madhava and Nana carved this inscription which was written out by Jaya Sagara, as the eulogium of the sacred creation of Tejapala, the goldsmith.145
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This version has been prepared from the Sanskrit copy in the Jour. Bomb. Br. R. Asiat. Soc., Vol. I. pp. 100-103, by the Rev. R. Stothert, M.A. The translation by Bal Gangadhar Shastri, as given in the same volume (pp. 63-66), is so unsatisfactory, and so defaced by typographical blunders as to be nearly useless.