The Chalukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts c42.s1.5

c42.s1.5

The *stambhas*, or columns, which generally stand out before these temples are another characteristic feature, and are elegant objects in themselves (see Fig. 42). Their shafts are always of single blocks—never built in sections—that of the large *basti* being a single block of twenty-one feet six inches. The Jaina columns are, as a rule, surmounted with a tiny pavilion or *chhatri*, on four little pillars in which is placed a *chau-mukha*, or four small images of Jinas seated back to back. Vaiṣṇava ones will have a Garuḍa, and Śaiva a bull or a *triśūla*. Columns before Brāhmanical temples often carried a brazier on the top, in the place of an image, with, sometimes, brackets on the shaft for lights. The Jains could not have these fire columns, or *dīpdāns*, since the lights would attract insects and burn them, and the taking of life was more abhorrent to them than to Hindus. As these temples have no tall spires to indicate their whereabouts, the lofty columns serve the same purpose.