Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s1.t7: Junnar
Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c13.s1.t7
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Junnar
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Forty-eight miles north of Poona is the old town of Junnar round which are several groups of rock-excavations, 150 in number. There are ten Chaitya halls and the rest are Vihāras. Like other early caves, they are mostly devoid of figure ornament. They may be dated from 2nd century B.C. to 1st century A.D., and were the result of the great movement of the rock-cut religious monuments, when it started with the first flash of enthusiasm. Inscriptions on some of the caves inform they were meant for the use of the Buddhist monks.
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In the Gaṇeśa Leṇa group there is a Chaitya hall similar to that at Nasik and a Vihāra which may be said to be the finest of its kind. There are several architectural forms in the Junnar caves not found elsewhere, for instance, six Chaitya caves with square ends (*āyata*), flat roofs and without internal pillars and also one completely circular Chaitya hall (in the Tuljā group) which is quite unique and of which only other instance is the Chaitya hall at Guntupalle at east-coast.
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The great peculiarity of the series is the extreme simplicity of the caves composing it. Here we do not find figures of guardians and men and women as at Karle. There is evidence that the Chaitya halls were plastered and painted. The Chaitya hall at Mānmoda has a façade with elaborate sculpture, which is also a quite unique style. On its lowermost circular front which is conceived in the form of an expanded lotus, the petal in the centre is carved with the standing figure of Śrī-Lakṣmī in the midst of side lotuses with her right hand in *abhayamudrā* and left held akimbo (*kaṭyavalambita*). She is flanked by two elephants performing her *abhiṣeka* and standing on lotuses, both being carved in similar petals as the Goddess herself. Next to the elephants are male and female worshippers, i.e. *dampatis* in *añjalimudrā* or the attitude of adoration on both sides of the group. This treatment of the Goddess Gaja-Lakshmī has been conceived here in an especially charming manner both by the position over the doorway and lotus back-ground. Though found at Bharhut, Sanchi, Bodhgaya and Udaigiri, it is seldom that Goddess Śrī-Lakshmī occupies so important a position as she does here. She was representing an ancient folk-cult which is given an open welcome in the religious setting of Buddhist Chaitya halls. On the edge of the small semi-circular centre of the sculpture on this façade is an inscription stating that, ‘the half front was the gift of Chanda, a Yavana’. This is important as pointing to the faith of the donor with *Bhāgavata* affiliation similar to that of Heliodoros, who erected the Garuḍa-dhvaja at Besnagar. Above the fronton (*kīrtimukha*), on each side of its finial, are figures:—on the right a Nāgarāja with hoods rising from shoulder, and on the left a Garuḍa with wings from his shoulder, and behind each is a Stūpa in high relief. This representation of the Nāga-Garuḍa motif is also a unique feature which the ingenious author of this decorative conception adopted on the façade of a Buddhist Chaitya in company with Śrī-Lakshmī and Stūpas. On the two sides of the *kīrtimukha* window and a little removed from it are two door-jambs and a lintel above them, the whole forming a beautiful frame which is quite impressive and lofty and decorated with a series of bigger and smaller Chaitya windows, themselves framed by Vedikā design.
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The interior of this cave measures 30' in length and 12' 6'' in width between the pillars of the nave. [Fig. 124].
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A little to the east of this is a series of four cells with a neatly carved façade; each door has the Chaitya-window arch over it projecting about 15 in., and is carved below in the same style as over the doorway of the Nāsik Chaitya—indicative of an early date.
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In the Tuljā-leṇa group, about two miles west from Junnar, there are about 12 excavations, one a Vihāra with five cells, another was perhaps a refection hall (*Bhojana-śālā*) and the most important of them all a circular Chaitya mentioned above. The façades that remain consist of Chaitya window, rail-pattern, and Stūpa ornamentation. The interior of this Chaitya hall is circular being 25' 6'' across and its domical roof (18') is supported on twelve plain octagonal pillars (*aṭṭhāṃsika-stambha*), arranged round the Stūpa. This architectural plan of an open pavilion supported on pillars seems to have been derived from a model of much older circular Parṇaśālās of wooden construction. One such round pavilion is actually depicted in relief on the Bharhut *Vedikā*, in which the shrine with a domed roof and finial (*stūpi*) has the form of a pavilion (*maṇḍapa*) supported on pillars with a raised platform (*maṇḍa*) in the centre on which is placed the turban of the Buddha under a Chhatra and Yashti. The shrine is surrounded by a railing (vedikā) and prominent gateways of which one is shown in the Bharhut bas-relief. The front side of the platform is beautified with marks of the pañjaka design and in front of it is a smaller platform for receiving flowers (pushpa-grahaṇī vedikā).
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There are several other Chaitya halls at Junnar with the interior carved as a rectangle in plan and with a flat roof without pillars and having Stūpa at the same position as in a round apse. They had small vestibules supported on pillars having water-pot bases and capitals and decorated with rail designs. Although there is a Chaitya window fronton but not perforated and hence light enters only through the doors.
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In the Gaṇeśa leṇa group there are four Chaitya halls of which one, bearing an inscription of the time of Nahapāna, is the best example we have of the Chaitya of about the first century A. D. Its proportions are good and all the details well understood and properly applied. The interior measures about 45' and there are five pillars on each side of the nave which have beautiful capitals with spirited figures of riders on tigers, elephants and other animals. The rich ornamentation of this Chaitya hall and its moderate dimensions make it a typical example of a Buddhist Chaitya Gṛiha as perfected after centuries of trial of architecture and sculpture.