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YASASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
Nahani, or Dumar Lena. 'The great hall, including the shrine, is 148 feet wide by 149 deep, and 17 feet 8 inches high, but the excavation extends to about 240 feet from north to south. This cave is remarkably similar to the great Saiva cave temple at Elephanta, but it is larger and in some respects finer; it is also, perhaps, later in age.' The shrine is a small square room containing a linga, with four doors, each guarded by a pair of gigantic dvarapālas.
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Elephanta is a small island near Bombay, about seven miles to the north-east of Apollo Bandar; and the great cave temple of Siva hewn out of the living rock is on the north face of the western hill. The cave consists of a central hall and four vestibules, and measures about 130 feet in length, the breadth being approximately the same. The roof is supported by massive columns varying in height from 15 to 17 feet. These originally numbered twenty-six, of which eight have collapsed. The cave is remarkable for its colossal sculptures representing Siva in his various forms including Nataraja, Gangadhara and Ardhanarisvara. But the most striking sculpture in the cave is the huge panel consisting of a tripie-headed bust of Siva, which rises to a height of 17 feet 10 inches above a moulded base, nearly 3 feet high. The image stands in a recess 10 feet deep, within which the heads emerge clifflike from the native rock.'
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The triple head represents three aspects of Siva: Tatpurusa (the supreme Mahadeva) in the middle, and Vamadeva (the Beautiful) and Aghora (the Terrible) on the sides. The image of Mahadeva 'dominates the whole assemblage. It is the concrete form of Siva whose linga is worshipp ed in the adjacent shrine. The plan of the rock-cut temple was thus adjusted to the image; the entire hall is laid out in front of it in its deep recess. The stage is set for that form (rupa) of His who is beyond form, and who pervades the universe, which thus is His visible body.''
The cave-temple at Elephanta has generally been assigned to the latter part of the eighth century A. D., and is probably of the same age as the excavations at Ellora, which fall in the Raṣṭrakūta period. The close resemblance between the Dumar Lena at Ellora and the Elephanta cave has attracted the attention of observers; while pillars with compressed cushion capitals' have been found both in Elephanta and some of the cave temples at Ellora. But the simple grandeur of the Elephanta sculptures in striking contrast to the complex and grotesque multiplicity of those at Ellora suggests a somewhat earlier date for the former, possible the seventh century A. D.3 the tenth century A. D., Ellora and Elephanta must have been great centres
In
1
Ibid. p. 47.
2 Stella Kramrisch in Ancient India, Number 2, p. 7.
3
See Hirananda Sastri: A Guide to Elephanta (published by the Government of India) and Burgess: The Rock temples of Elephanta or Ghäräpuri. When the Portuguese occupied the island in 1534, the cave temple must have been in excellent preserThe Portuguese captain Joao de Castro, who visited the island in 1538, thought that the cave could not be the work of human hands. Even Apelles', ho says, 'might have learned from the proportion and symmetry of the figures.' "The
vation.
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