Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c9: Temples in the Nāsik District

Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c9

Language: English

c9.s1 Sinnar — 25 parts
c9.s2 Jhodga — 20 parts
c9.s3 Añjanerī — 21 parts
c9.s4 Devalānā — 1 part
c9.s5 Tringalvādi — 7 parts
c9.s6 Chāndor — 7 parts

Temples in the Nāsik District

Sinnar

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SINNAR, twenty miles south of Nāsik, is an ancient town, and has been mentioned in old records under the names Sindinagara, Seuṇapura and Sindīnera. In A.D. 1025 the Mahāsāmanta Bhillama III of the Yādava family was ruling his hereditary province of Seuṇadesa, at his capital of Sindīnagara, as a feudatory of the Western Chālukya king Jayasiṃha II. Later, according to the Vrata-khaṇḍa and the Bassein grant of A.D. 1069, it is recorded that Seuṇachandra I founded the town of Seuṇapura. It would appear that his son Dhadiyappa was born in the town of Sindīnera. This is about all that we know of it. According to tradition Sinnar was founded by a Gavali (Yādava) chief Rāv Shinguni about seven hundred years ago. His son Rāv Govinda is supposed to have built the great temple of Goṇdeśvara, at a cost of two lakhs of rupees. It is possible it may be named after Govindarāja, one of the Yādava Princes, who ruled about the beginning of the 12th century. (Plates XLII—LII and LV.)

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This great temple of Goṇdeśvara, outside the town of Sinnar on the north-east, is the largest and most complete of its class in the Dakhan. It is a pañchāyatana temple, that is, a group of five shrines dedicated to five deities—Śiva, Viṣṇu, Gaṇapati, Sūrya and Devī, the central main temple being dedicated to the first and the four small surrounding shrines to the others. Before the main entrance stands the Nandi pavilion. The buildings stand upon a long rectangular platform, the main temple in the centre and the four smaller around it, one at each corner. The whole group has been surrounded by a wall, now mostly destroyed, with two entrance porches or gateways—one on the south and one on the east—enclosing a large and ample courtyard. The great temple faces east, and the shrine contains the usual Śaivite liṅga. It is built of the ordinary amygdaloidal trap rock of the locality, and this has not weathered well in respect of the smaller carvings, the softer particles having disintegrated, leaving the surfaces of the exposed portions rather honeycombed.

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The plan of the main building is practically the same as that of Ambarnātha, its length, over all, being 78 feet. The exteriors are also remarkably alike, the style and general disposition of the mouldings being the same. The elephant band in the basement of the Sinnar temple is bolder and far more effective than it is at Ambarnātha, but the latter has a much greater display of images on its walls. In Gondeśvara the porches are deeper and have had dwarf side walls, inside, which form benches; these did not exist in the other.

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Of figure sculpture upon the temple there is very little, and what there is is chiefly confined to small images in little panels around the porches. These consist of representations of scenes from the Rāmāyaṇa, female dancing figures, and others of the different manifestations of the various gods and goddesses. The few images that occur upon the main walls are very poorly carved and savour much of later work than that of Ambarnātha. Little pilasters and lozenge-shaped flowers occupy, for the most part, the niches usually reserved for images. The principal images upon the temple are those upon the outside of the shrine walls. These are, above the gargoyle on the north side, and under the large niche, a four-handed devī or goddess, and, on the south side of the shrine, Brahmī with three faces and a goose below her. The corresponding image on the west or back of the temple has been removed. Upon each face of the temple, above these, is a deep canopied niche in which were placed the more important of the images, but they are now empty. Each has Gaja-Lakshmī above its cornice. On either side of the mass of masonry standing out before the base of the śikhara, that is, between the latter and the pyramidal roof of the hall, are two niches one above the other. In those on the north side of the temple are Śiva above, and what looks like Bhairava below. While the lower niche on the south side is empty, the upper one contains Śiva dancing the tāṇḍava. Attached to the pillars of the porches were ornamental bracket figures of females, but of these, of which there were four in each porch, two remain in the east or main porch—one very much damaged—and three in the north porch. The pilasters also had bracket figures, but they were of lions or griffins, and, of these, three remain out of six. On the whole, the images are very poorly carved and shew to very great disadvantage beside those on the small temple of Aeśvara to the north-west of the town. The ornamental gargoyle, through which the waste water from the shrine passes out, upon the north side of the temple, is, though mutilated, a particularly fine piece of work. It is in the shape of the conventional makara so frequently introduced into temple decoration.

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The east or main porch is much damaged. The forward beam is cracked, and the immense mass of masonry above, which would otherwise collapse, is propped up by a slender square column of stone. The upper part of the parapet wall on the north side has disappeared and the forward steps and flanking masonry have been entirely renewed. The side walls of the north porch have gone, but portions of the forward steps and their flanking walls remain. The forward beam in this porch is also cracked and is propped up by the insertion of a pillar. The door lintel, too, is cracked, and is supported by two pillars, one of which, a carved pillar from elsewhere, has a curious and uncommon arrangement of foliage around its shafts, which looks like work of several centuries earlier. The flanking walls on the east side, and most of the steps of the south porch, have gone. Here, again, the forward beam has cracked and has been supported by stone props.

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The ceilings of the porches are very neat, being formed of rings of cusped ornaments, with a small central pendant, which have fallen. On the face of the octagonal band, under the lowest circular moulding, are little figures, representing various scenes, such as the churning of the ocean by the gods and demons and processions. On the dedicatory blocks of all the doorways is Gaṇeśa. Kīrttimukha masks and florid arabesque fill up the corners of the ceilings.

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The interior of the temple is of the usual style. Four central pillars support the central dome of the ceiling, and upon them and the walls rests the whole weight of the hall roof. These four pillars, which are 9 feet 6 inches in height, are very elaborately carved, the general plan, all the way up, being square with recessed corners. The shaft, base and capital are divided up by horizontal mouldings. Among the images on the lower parts are dancers, male and female, amongst which are seen Bhairava and other deities. Higher up on the columns is a band, on the four sides of which are small groups of figures, among them being two very indecent representations. The pillar, at the north-west corner of the square, differs slightly in two of the bands about the middle of the shaft, but this is due to a flaw in the stone which necessitated their being drawn in to form a kind of neck to the pillar at that point. The pilasters are much plainer in design, all the elaborate work of the interior being concentrated upon the four pillars. These are of a very different style to those at Ambarnātha and Balsāne; they are far less graceful in outline, and the distribution of the various bands and panels of sculpture is not carried out with the same taste and eye to the general balance of parts. The spreading towards the base in the earlier pillars gives a better feeling of strength and stability. There seems to be a want of a definite plan about the sub-divisions of these columns.

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The great cential dome of the ceiling, which rises to a height of nearly 20 feet, is precisely like that of the porches and the antechamber—neat and chaste but not elaborate. Being so high above the beams compared with its span, and, having a deep projecting cornice round the inside of the beams, verp little light gets into the dome, which is, therefore, very dark and gloomy. The side ceilings rise in four tiers of concave cusped mouldings from the side walls to the central square.

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In the walls of the hall, on either side of the entrance to the antechamber, are large framed niches for images, but these are absent. There are also larger ones in the side walls of the antechamber itself, one in each side. The beam across the entrance to the antechamber is cracked and is supported by a stone prop. The shrine doorway is of the same pattern as the outer or main doorway, being rather more elaborate than that of temple No. I at Balsāne, and a great deal more so than that of the Jaina temple at Añjaneri. Save for the clumsy threshold stone, which seems to have been an after insertion, the Balsāne doorway is a stronger and more chaste design than the Sinnar one. In this, the pilasters, on either side, which support the cornice, are less prominently marked, and are more or less lost in the group of mouldings which surrounds it. The kīrttimukha face, which is, as a rule, found upon the threshold, does not occur here. The interior of the shrine is plain, the floor being on the same level as the hall floor; and in the middle of it is a large liṅga. The present Nandi, in the Nandi paviliōn, appears to be a comparatively new one; another one about the same size, with the headless fragments of two others, lie below on the pavement.

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It is difficult now to say, with absolute certainty, to what deities the four surrounding shrines were dedicated, but, judging from the sculptures which remain upon them, the nort-west one was assigned to Pārvatī, the south-west to Gaṇapati, the north-east to Sūrya, and the south-east to Viṣṇu. Among the smaller images, around the Nandi pavilion, are two of the *avatāras* of Viṣṇu, namely, Varāha and Narasimha.

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The *śikhara* has lost its own finial and has been capped with an incongruous Muhammadan dome in brick and mortar, which is to be removed. The small shrines have also lost the whole or part of their finials. What the original was like may be seen, to some extent, in the photographs of the temples at Jhodgā and Ratanvāḍi. The masonry of the roof of the hall, shown in black in the section, is built hollow, and the main tower is also hollow above the shrine ceiling.

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The temple of Āeśvara, upon the north-west of the town, just above the rivulet, is in the Chālukyan style and, so, does not belong to the class of work usually found in the Dakhan. It is the most northerly Chālukyan structure that has been found. Nothing is known of its origin, and even tradition gives us no clue to the reason for it being found so far north of its natural habitat.

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Fig. 9—The temple of Āeśvara, looking towards the shrine.

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It has the appearance of a temple of the best period of Chālukyan work, that is, about the eleventh century, and is possibly older than that of. Gondēśvara. There are some details it seems to have borrowed from the northern style, such as, for instance, the kichaka bracket above the capital of the pillars—the little squat figure in the act of supporting the beam. This is not found in Chālukyan work.¹

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¹ Compare the walls and pillars with those in the temple of Malikārjuna at Kuruvaṭṭi, and with some of the pillars in Nannesvara at Lakkundi. The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts, plates LXXIII and CVIII.

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The temple, as it stands, consists of a shrine, with nearly the whole of its tower missing, and two groups of four pillars standing out in front of the shrine, which formed part of a long hall, or two halls, one in advance of the other. These retain their beams above them. There were enclosing walls around these, which is shewn by parts of their foundations which still remain (Plate LV).. There was also a raised platform around the shrine as the indented outline for the elephant moulding of its foundation shows. There would appear to have been images in the recesses between the pilasters all around the shrine walls, but they have been removed. The group of pillars, nearest the shrine, are octagonal in plan with recessed corners, but of the outer group of four, the inner two are six-sided in plan, and the outer pair are square. There are three-very ornamental niches in the base of the shrine, one on each side.

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Among the images still remaining on the outside of the temple, which are all small, is a devī (Pārvatī?) seated upon a tiger or a lion with curly mane up above the cornice on the south face. Little corner lion-brackets occupy the tops of the wall pilasters while, between them, in the running band, are small figures of sorts, some of which are very indecent. Around the lower part of the wing walls, a portion of which remains on the north side, there have been some very fine carved groups, some of which have been carried away and have been built into the wall of a little shrine on the bank of the stream near by.. A fragment of one of these groups still exists in the north wing wall, west face, with two on the north face representing incidents from the Rāmāyaṇa, the other being a group of three standing figures in an attitude of adoration.

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A most superb piece of carving overarches the entrance to the antechamber. Forming a semicircular arch are three bands, the centre one of little dancing dwarfs. These rise from the jaws of two makaras, one on either side, with the most wonderful tails of flowing arabesque, which turn up over their backs and forward on to the arched bands. The central semicircular panel, under the arch, is occupied by a representation of Śiva dancing the tāṇḍava. A musician on his left keeps time on his drum, and Pārvatī sits on his right amazed at his performance. Three wedge-shaped slots in the stone, under this sculpture, show that another slab had been slipped on below which probably was a sculptured band containing Śiva's gaṇa.

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The ceiling of the antechamber is flat, and is divided by deep cross bars into nine sunk squares, in each of which was a group of figures, but the central one has been destroyed. The remaining represent the aṣṭadikpālas or the regents of the eight points of the compass. This is a very favourite ceiling in Chālukyan temples and has been fully described in a previous volume.¹ The sculptor has, however, made a blunder in putting Agni, on his ram, in the north compartment which should have contained Kuvera, on his horse. Kuvera is probably in the wrong place in the south-east corner where Agni ought to be, but this sculpture is damaged beyond all recognition. The regents should be as follows:—

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¹ The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts.

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Above the shrine doorway, which is fairly well decorated, is a line of figures representing the *saptamātṛis* or the "Seven Mothers," another sculpture peculiar to Chālukyan temples, since the members of the Chālukya family were under the special guardianship of these divine, mothers. There are, however, eleven figures in the row. On the left side is Śiva with a standing attendant, and on the right, Gaṇapati and Śiva as Bhairava. On the dedicatory block we find the Chālukyan Gaja-Lakshmī instead of Gaṇapati who is the favourite presiding deity among the Dekhan temples. Occupying the middle of the band of mouldings, immediately above this, is Vishṇu upon Śesha. On the lower inner face of the south antechamber pilaster is Brahmā, Vishṇu occupying the north one. On the outer pilasters are *dvārapālas* or door-keepers. The larger female figures on the pillars have been well carved, and exhibit exceptional elegance of pose. Among the smaller figures are some of the *avatāras* of Vishṇu. The interior of the shrine is perfectly plain, and a *liṅga* now occupies the centre of the floor.

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In addition to the temples just described, there are two other old ones in the village of no particular interest, save that one has four doors to its shrine. It has the usual *maṇḍapa* or hall before it, into which one door enters, but the doors in the other three walls of the shrine lead out into the open. The shrine walls are complete with all their mouldings on the outside shewing that there was no other enclosing wall beyond it, and, therefore no *pradakshiṇa* to which the doors could have led. There may have been porches before each of these. Above the door leading into the hall is Gaṇapati, but above the others there are no images. The *liṅga* now occupies the shrine.

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Out in the fields, about a mile east of the town, is a small "Hemādpanti" shrine which is partly in ruins.

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Just outside the east gate, by a well, were two Jaina images, each of them being a colossal figure of a female seated on a tiger. These were half buried in the earth.

Jhodga

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Jhodgā is about seventy-five miles to the north-east of Nāsik on the borders of Khāndesh. At the foot of a small hill, to the west of the town, is a well-finished old temple of Mahādeva, which looks exceedingly well as it stands out in the open, without any surroundings, upon its high basement. It consists of a central hall with its porch and three shrines, the main *śikhara* being all but complete. The whole is richly wrought and decorated. The It has the appearance of a temple of the best period of Chālukyan work, that is, about the eleventh century, and is possibly older than that of Gondēśvara. There are some details it seems to have borrowed from the northern style, such as, for instance, the *kichaka* bracket above the capital of the pillars—the little squat figure in the act of supporting the beam. This is not found in Chālukyan work.¹

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¹ Compare the walls and pillars with those in the temple of Malikārjuna at Kuruvaṭṭi, and with some of the pillars in Nannesvara at Lakkundi. The *Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts*, plates LXXIII and CVIII.

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Among the images still remaining on the outside of the temple, which are all small, is a *devī* (Pārvatī?) seated upon a tiger or a lion with curly mane up above the cornice on the south face. Little corner lion-brackets occupy the tops of the wall pilasters while, between them, in the running band, are small figures of sorts, some of which are very indecent. Around the lower part of the wing walls, a portion of which remains on the north side, there have been some very fine carved groups, some of which have been carried away and have been built into the wall of a little shrine on the bank of the stream nearby. A fragment of one of these groups still exists in the north wing wall, west face, with two on the north face representing incidents from the *Rāmāyaṇa*, the other being a group of three standing figures in an attitude of adoration.

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A most superb piece of carving overarches the entrance to the antechamber.. Forming a semicircular arch are three bands, the centre one of little dancing dwarfs. These rise from the jaws of two *makaras*, one on either side, with the most wonderful tails of flowing arabesque, which turn up over their backs and forward on to the arched bands. The central semicircular panel, under the arch, is occupied by a representation of Śiva dancing the *tāṇḍava*. A musician on his left keeps time on his drum, and Pārvatī sits on his right amazed at his performance. Three wedge-shaped slots in the stone, under this sculpture, show that another slab had been slipped on below which probably was a sculptured band containing Śiva's *gaṇa*.

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The ceiling of the antechamber is flat, and is divided by deep cross bars into nine sunk squares, in each of which was a group of figures, but the central one has been destroyed. The remaining represent the *aṣṭadikpālas* or the regents of the eight points of the compass. This is a very favourite ceiling in Chālukyan temples and has been fully described in a previous volume.¹ The sculptor has, however, made a blunder in putting Agni, on his ram, in the north compartment which should have contained Kuvera, on his horse. Kuvera is probably in the wrong place in the south-east corner where Agni ought to be, but this sculpture is damaged beyond all recognition. The regents should be as follows:— N. Kuvera on the horse. S. Yama on the male buffalo. N-E. Īśa on the bull. S-W. Nirriti on a man. E. Indra on the elephant. W. Varuṇa on a makara. S-E. Agni on the ram. N-W. Vāyu on the deer.

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¹ The Chālukyan Architecture of the Kanarese Districts.

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Above the shrine doorway, which is fairly well decorated, is a line of figures representing the *saptamātṛis* or the "Seven Mothers," another sculpture peculiar to Chālukyan temples, since the members of the Chālukya family were under the special guardianship of these divine, mothers. There are, eleven figures in the row. On the left side is Śiva with a standing attendant, and on the right, Gaṇapati and Śiva as Bhairava. On the dedicatory block we find the Chālukyan Gaja-Lakshmī instead of Gaṇapati who is the favourite presiding deity among the Dekhan temples. Occupying the middle of the band of mouldings, immediately above this, is Vishnu upon Śesha. On the lower inner face of the south antechamber pilaster is Brahmā, Vishnu occupying the north one. On the outer pilasters are *dvārapālas* or door-keepers. The larger female figures on the pillars have been well carved, and exhibit exceptional elegance of pose. Among the smaller figures are some of the *avatāras* of Vishnu. The interior of the shrine is perfectly plain, and a *liṅga* now occupies the centre of the floor.

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In addition to the temples just described, there are two other old ones in the village of no particular interest, save that one has four doors to its shrine. It has the usual *maṇḍapa* or hall before it, into which one door enters, but the door in the other three walls of the shrine lead out into the open. The shrine walls are complete with all their mouldings on the outside shewing that there was no other enclosing wall beyond it, and, therefore no *pradakshiṇa* to which the doors could have led. There may have been porches before each of these. Above the door leading into the hall is Gaṇapati, but above the others there are no images. The *liṅga* now occupies the shrine.

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Out in the fields, about a mile east of the town, is a small "Hemādpanti" shrine which is partly in ruins.

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Just outside the east gate, by a well, were two Jaina images, each of them being a colossal figure of a female seated on a tiger. These were half buried in the earth.

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Jhodgā is about seventy-five miles to the north-east of Nāsik on the borders of Khāndesh. At the foot of a small hill, to the west of the town, is a well-finished old temple of Mahādeva, which looks exceedingly well as it stands out in the open, without any surroundings, upon its high basement. It consists of a central hall with its porch and three shrines, the main *śikhara* being all but complete. The whole is richly wrought and decorated. The main shrine, hall and porch are of original construction, but the two side shrines are of later and inferior workmanship: and no attempt has been made on these to preserve the lines of mouldings which run round the older work. It is possible the side shrines were not in the original plan, but had been added in the place of porches. This alteration made the interior very dark, and so four irregular rectangular openings were made in the side walls to let in a little light. These appear to have been made by knocking out the most convenient blocks of stone from the walling. The temple faces the west, and Ganapati presides above the shrine doorway. (Plates LIII—LVI.)

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The style of tower, and the mouldings of the outer walls, closely resemble those of Gondeśvara at Sinnar, and the more complete top with the little finials in the wall ornament, enable us to reconstruct the top of the śikhara at Sinnar. The kīrtimukha faces at the top of the tower are replaced by human faces in later temples. The face of the projection on the front of the tower is carved into an elaborate arrangement of kīrtimukhas and arched scrolls of arabesque. In a panel, in the centre, is a six-handed seated image. The lower hands rest in the lap, but the upper hands and the head have been destroyed. Below this is a row of niches, in the centre one of which, judging from the general outline of the fractured surface, was Śiva, probably dancing the tāṇḍava. On his left are the remains of a standing figure, with one of its left hands across its chest as if holding a flute to its mouth, as Kṛṣṇa is usually represented, while below is a small kneeling figure—perhaps, Garuḍa—with head and shoulders destroyed. On the right of Śiva was a figure which has disappeared all but one foot, but the goose, below, shows that it was Brahmā. Thus we have the traid of gods who are flanked, on either side, by a female chauri bearer. Beneath this line of figures, in the centre, is a small rectangular opening into the hollow of the śikhara, which does not appear ever to have been used as a shrine; it has no dedicatory image over it, nor has it any door-frame.

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A curious thing about this temple is that it has no framed doorway to the hall, the entrance being the whole width between the pilasters in front.

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The temple is decorated with a greater number of images than that of Gondeśvara at Sinnar, and these are chiefly confined to the walls of the shrine. On the east, or back of the shrine, the principal niche is empty. Above, on the base of the śikhara, is Indra seated with his elephant beneath him. On the north side, the principal niche contains the tāṇḍava, but the legs and arms are broken off; the image on the base of the śikhara, above, is gone. On the south side, the principal niche contains Bhairava, while, above him on the śikhara, is Yama on his buffalo. These upper niches, therefore, contained the regents of the points of the compass which they face. In addition to these, other panels and corners of the walls are filled with images, singly or in pairs, such as musicians, female dancers, the dikpālas, Mahiṣāsura-mardanī, several times repeated, Mahākālī, and warriors with round and rectangular shields.

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The interior of the temple is comparatively simple and plain. One large domical ceiling covers in the maṇḍapa which is unsupported by any intermediate pillars. The dome rises in a series of thirteen concentric circles of mouldings, in the usual manner, to the apex, from which a pendant hung at one time. About half way up, is a ring of eight bracket figures, which are now much damaged. The eight pillars at the main entrance and the entrances to the antechambers, are very clumsy and do not match the pilasters: they appear to be an addition made subsequently to the building of the temple. The beam above the entrance to the principal antechamber is cracked, and the failure of this was probably the reason for introducing them throughout. As the columns now leave very little unsupported space beneath the beams, the cracked one could hardly have given way after their insertion.

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The ceiling of the antechamber is rectangular, and rises in diminishing rectangles, the mouldings being somewhat similar to those of the hall ceiling. The shrine doorway is fairly well decorated, but the work is a trifle coarse, in fact the work on the whole temple is not of the first class.

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The only original free-standing pillars in the temple are the two in the entrance porch.

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In the side shrines low altars have been placed, upon which were set up small piṇḍis. Out in front of the porch, upon a roughly raised platform, which may be all that is left of a pavilion, is a large mutilated Nandi, looking towards the shrine.

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About a hundred yards to the west, or front, of this temple is the shrine and antechamber of a smaller one, of plainer design. There is nothing of interest about it except a curious little panel sculpture on the back representing a two-leaved door surmounted by the chaitya-window ornament.

Añjanerī

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The village of Añjanerī is picturesquely situated on the eastern slope of the northern spur of Añjanerī or Añjanī Hill, about fourteen miles west of Nāsik. Just below the village, in the plain, scattered over an area of about half a square mile, there have been innumerable small shrines, of which sixteen now stand in whole or in part, while the rest are represented by mounds upon which lie heaps of their material—columns, images, beams and other carved stones. The most striking feature about these remains is that they all appear to have been built upon a small scale, and they are independent temples and not satelites to a larger one. They all seem to rest upon brick foundations, and have been dedicated to various deities, the more important being Jaina, two Vaishnava, and the rest Śaiva. They face all four points of the compass. They are not now used, nor do they appear to have been much used at any time; and the shattered condition they are now in points rather to wanton destruction at the hands of man than the ravages of time; trees, cactus bushes, and other plants still grow luxuriantly upon them. In addition to the temples there have been extensive masonry tanks, little of which, except their pits and a few bits of stonework, remains. (Plates LVII—LXI.)

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There is one group of shrines which, on account of their better preservation than the rest, and that in one of them is a finely engraved and important inscription, might be considered the principal group. This cluster contains six distinct buildings, which, at some time subsequent to the erection of the last, have been surrounded by a wall with an entrance gateway on the south. The largest, which we may call No. 1, faces the east and, like No. 5 at Balsāne, has an open front and verandah; in fact, they all have this open verandah in place of a porch. It consists of the shrine, with a pillared hall before it, and a deep pillared verandah before this again. The exterior of the temple is remarkably plain, the only decoration being a series of simple mouldings with a few fretwork bands running round it. This peculiar style of surface ornament, which takes the place of the panels and figure bands in the earlier examples, is seen more developed in the temples at Ratanvādi and Sangameśvara, and, combined with figures, in Chāngdeva and Tahākāri. The śikhara is in the northern style, but is plain, the main features being only blocked out.

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Within the shrine was an altar or seat, against the back wall, upon which, no doubt, an image of a Jina was placed. Only the lower part of this now remains, the rest of it lies about the shrine and hall, it having been wantonly destroyed. Upon the dedicatory blocks of both the shrine and hall doorways is a seated Jina, that on the outer one being flanked by images of Pārśvanātha, while that on the shrine doorway is flanked by devīs. The central bay of the verandah ceiling is domical and has a neat eight-pointed rosette pendent from the centre. The side ceilings are oblong, and are just sections of the side ceilings in the hall. The central bay of the hall ceiling is similar to that of the verandah, but more lofty. The antechamber has a plain oval, rising in two tiers, the oval being rather flat. It is like those in the temples at Sangameśvara and Chāngdeva, and is very unusual. Being rather dumpy in outline it is not a success.

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On either side of the doorway, in the verandah, is a niche for an image, but they are now empty. The floors of most of these temples have been upturned, probably by the Muhammadans in search of treasure.

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The pillars are after the style of those at Pātna, the kīrtimukha mask forming a conspicuous detail in their decoration, and they have no images upon them. Notwithstanding that this is a Jaina temple, the doorway has the kīrtimukha upon its threshold, one on either side of the centre projection. The female images at the foot of the jambs, holding waterpots, are probably intended for the river goddesses Gangā and Yamunā who occupy this position in the very early temples. The two large images of Pārśvanātha, above the door, indicate, no doubt, that the temple was dedicated to that tīrthankara.

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Temple No. 2, which stands at right angles to the last and close to it, was perhaps, the most important in the group, since it contains a slab bearing an interesting inscription. It is smaller than No. 1, but in other respects it is very similar to it. It has no pillars in the hall, the small size of the building not making them necessary. The two pillars in the porch, or verandah, are rather more ornate than those in temple No. 1, and approach more nearly to those of temple No. 2 at Balsāne, being almost counterparts of them.

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Before the hall doorway is a very prettily designed low step or *ardhachandra*. The altar and the flooring of the shrine have been destroyed; the doorway is like the outer one in the last temple, having two standing Pārśvanātha images above it. Two large mutilated Jinas are lying in the hall—one a seated image with the top of the head knocked off, and the other a nude image of Pārśvanātha. It was thus a Digambara shrine. It faces the south.

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The inscribed slab is set up on the side wall of the hall, above a niche. It is not built into the wall, but rather against it, being gripped and held in position between the beam above and the top of the cornice of the niche; and since the top of this niche is five inches lower than that of the niche on the other side, in order to allow of the insertion of the slab, it is likely the slab was put up when the temple was built. It records the gift of three shops in the city (probably Añjanerī) for the upkeep of the temple of Chandraprabha by the king Seuṇachandra III in *Śaka* 1063 (A. D. 1142). It further records that a rich merchant, named Vatsarāja, with two others, gave a shop and a house for the same purpose.

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There can be little doubt but that this temple was built before No. 1 for one would hardly expect to find a king settling gifts upon the lesser of two temples standing side by side.

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Of temple No. 3 only the verandah and part of the west wall of the hall remain, the rest being completely wrecked. The pillars and walls are very plain and the doorway even more so. On the block, above the latter, is a seated Jina. It faces north.

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Buildings No. 4, 5 and 6 in this group were, perhaps, rather *maṭhas* or rest houses than temples. They have no shrines, and the halls of Nos. 4 and 6 are oblong. Four pillars support the hall ceilings in each case, and each has a verandah in front. The central ceiling of No. 4 is flat, and is decorated with three circular rosettes. Thin slender pillars were inserted between the forward and back pairs of the pillars of the hall, to assist in supporting the extra long beams above, but only one of these still stands; part of another lies on the floor. Only one pillar of the verandah stands; the rest, with the whole of the roof, has fallen. The building faces the south. Nos. 5 and 6, which face the east, are in ruins.

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About fifty yards south of the last group is another smal Jaina temple No. 7, which is very plainly built. The shrine doorway, which is very simple in design, has a Jina upon the block but no work above the cornice. The pillars have plain square shafts with simply moulded bases and caps, and a few only remain. Beside this one, on the north, has been another Jaina shrine or *maṭha*, like Nos. 5 and 6, but nothing now stands except the doorway and a part of the adjacent wall. The whole appears to have had an enclosing wall of some extent around it.

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No. 8, which is a small Vaishnava shrine, built and sculptured in the same style as that of Gondesvara at Sinnar, is about a hundred yards to the west of the last temple and nearer the village. Only the shrine of the temple is now standing. The three principal images on the outside of the shrine are—on the east, Varāha, on the south Narasimha, and on the west the Vāmana avatāra. In the shrine, against the back wall, is a low altar, on the front of which is Garuḍa, and over the shrine door are Śiva, Vishnu and Brahmā, Vishnu being in the middle. The image upon the dedicatory block above the shrine doorway has been much mutilated, but it was probably Garuḍa. The antechamber ceiling is, in plan, lentoid or a pointed oval which is a very unusual shape. The temple faces north.

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Twenty to thirty yards to the west of the last is No. 9, a small plainly built temple, of which the shrine and śikhara remain, all except the kalaśa or finial, the hall being completely ruined. Above the shrine door is Gaṇapati. There are the remains of what seems to have been an altar, with a weather-worn image carelessly placed upon it. The temple faces east.

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No. 10 is about twenty to thirty yards to the north of the last, under a large banyan tree. It is the wreck of a small Jaina temple. Over the shrine doorway is a Jina, while sitting in the midst of this desolation, presiding over the ruins, is a much weatherworn life-sized Jina, sitting now in the open air, the shrine walls having fallen. The temple faces the east. Behind this shrine is a high rocky mound, having upon it some small memorial stones, set up in a line facing west, and daubed with red paint.

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About four hundred yards due north of the first group of temples (Nos. 1 to 6) is a little shrine, No. 11, with its śikhara and antechamber, but without its hall, which has been ruined. It is plainly built, but has a good sculptured doorway to the shrine, with Gaṇapati on the dedicatory block. The shrine is empty. The temple faces east, and has an inscription of one line upon a pilaster.

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A hundred and fifty yards east-north-east of the last are two small shrines (No. 12), the northern one of which is much shattered. The principal images upon its walls are the tāṇḍava (?), Gaṇapati, and Mahākālī, and Gaṇapati figures, again, above the shrine door. In the shrine, against the back wall, is an altar with Garuḍa on the front, which has probably been brought from some other temple. Loosely placed upon it are images of Śiva-Pārvatī, Narasimha and Vishnu (?). The temple faces east. About ten yards to the south of the last is No. 13, a plain, square little shrine, with a pyramidal roof, facing west.

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These last two shrines appear to have stood upon the edge of a large masonry tank, and, at a distance of seventy to eighty yards to the north-west of them, is a length of about ten yards of old masonry steps of the tank still remaining. Down below these temples, in what was the bed of the tank, was a mutilated boar similar to that at Balsāne, but it has only four small figures upon it—two forward and two aft. A large figure, however, stands beside the left shoulder of the boar with the right arm turned upward toward its snout which has been mutilated. This is, of course, a representation of the boar *avatāra* of Vishṇu, which, on a colossal scale, is seen at Erān in the Central Provinces.

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About three hundred yards east of the last, on the south-west corner of what was once a tank, but now a rice field, are the ruins of another small shrine (No. 14) which faces east. A *liṅga* lies half buried in the shrine. In front of it, on the south side of the tank, are the sites of two other small shrines.

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Nos. 15 and 16 are about half a mile east of the village, at the foot of some low hills. They are the ruins of two small buildings, one being a temple and the other probably a *maṭha*. In addition to the above, there are the sites of many more buildings, which are now represented by mounds scattered about the fields, upon which still lie, in many cases, sculptured stones, columns and images.

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Beside the temples in the plain, there are sundry remains upon Añjanerī hill. Upon the very highest plateau, 4,300 feet above sea level, and some 2,000 feet above the temples just described, is a small roughly-built temple dedicated to the goddess Añjinī, who is here represented by the usual red-bedaubed rough stone image. The material of which this shrine has been built belonged to a previous temple of a more pretentious design. In the upper cliff to the north-east, just above the pond and bungalows, is a small roughly-hewn Jaina cave. A small doorway, with coarse figures on either side, gives access to a long *verandah* room, off the back of which is the shrine with a roughly-cut Jina seated within. In the lower cliff, in the side of the gorge through which the rough ascent passes, is another small Jaina cave with its sculpture better finished than in the one above. Pārśvanātha flanks the doorways. Like the temples below, these caves belong to the Digambara Jains. Attached to the cave is a water cistern.

Devalānā

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The village of Devalānā is fifty-six miles north-east of Nāsik. There is here an old three-shrined temple dedicated to Jāgeśvara; but the three shrines, like the side ones at Jhodgā, have been rebuilt in a very plain manner. A few courses of the basement of the old building remain below the later work, which show that, like the porch, it was elaborately decorated. As will be seen from the plan, the front of the hall is open, its eaves and corners being supported upon dwarf pillars which stand upon the low parapet wall, An image of Śiva is placed in a niche on either side of the entrance, and, among the smaller ones round the parapet wall, are some very indecent pairs. The hall has a central circular panel of sculpture portraying Kṛishṇa and the *gopīs*, like the one in the Mānbhāvū temple at Vāghlī. There is also a panel of three medallions, the centre one of which is worked into a design of *Nāgas* whose rope-like tails are intertwined and knotted in a most complicated manner. The pillars are somewhat like those at Añjanerī. (Plates LXII and LXIII.)

Tringalvādi

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Though not a built structure, the interesting rock-cut Jaina temple near the village of Tringalvādi, is included in our account of the Dakhan shrines since it has not been noticed in our previous volumes on the cave-temples, not having then been examined. Tringalvādi is six miles north-west of Igatpurī, the railway station at the top of the Thal Ghāt, the cave being cut in the foot of the hillside, about a mile west of the village. Though now much the worse for centuries of weathering, it was once a very ornate cave-temple. (Plate LXIV.)

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It consists of a large hall, 35 feet square, off the back of which are an antechamber and a shrine, and before it is a long verandah the full length of the width of the hall. Along the front of this verandah is a low parapet wall from which rise two pillars, one on either side of the entrance, supporting the outer eave of the verandah. Opposite these pillars are pilasters, and, between the latter, is the main doorway into the hall. Beyond these pilasters, and between them and each end of the verandah, is a grille window—two square bars each way dividing it into nine lights. The front of these bars is prettily chased with lotus rosettes at the junctions.

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In the centre of the verandah ceiling, and in front of the doorway, hanging in deep relief, is a group of five figures in a circle. The middle figure appears to be assisted or carried through the air by another on either side, while two others, beneath, also help. Over the doorway, upon the dedicatory block, is a Jina.

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FIG. 10—Pillar in the hall of Tringalvādi cave.

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The hall ceiling was supported upon four columns set square in the middle of the hall. The walls and ceiling are plain. Round the two sides of the south-west and north-west corners are very low continuous altars for images while round the two sides of the north-east and south-east corners are high benches which are not altars. The south-east pillar, only, remains intact (Fig. 10); the south-west one is continuous from floor to ceiling, but is much corroded about the middle. The north-west and north-east pillars have completely gone, fragments hanging from the ceiling, and their stumps on the floor, being all that is left of them.

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The shrine doorway is much disintegrated, but it was not so elaborately decorated as the front door. Over it, one above the other on three bands of mouldings, are three Jinas. Within the shrine, which is quite plain, measuring 13 by 12 feet, are the remains of a Jaina image upon an altar placed against the back wall. The chest, head and umbrella have been smashed and thrown away—part of the umbrella lies outside the cave—but the legs and the cushion are left. On the middle of the cushion is the bull, showing that the image was that of a Ṛishabdeva, while on either side of it is an inscription dated Saka 1266.

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There was a very fine inscription upon the wall in the north end of the cave, but only a very small fragment of it remains. The letters are small and well shaped. The inscribed surface seems to have been about four to five feet across, but it is not certain how deep. The front of the cave with the main doorway was originally painted, traces of which still remain. The partition wall, between the verandah and the hall, has been entirely built of great irregular blocks of stone well fitted together.

Chāndor

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At the town of Chāndor, some thirty-eight miles to the north-east of Nāsik, are a Jaina cave and the modern temple of Renukā Devī; and, on the hill fort of Indrāi, not far off, is a range of thirteen small rooms cut in the rock.

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The temple of Renukā Devī is quite a modern building and would not be noticed here were it not for two curious wooden images found at it. There is one feature, however, connected with the temple, which may be mentioned, and that is the fine broad flight of steps leading up to it. At the foot of this is a collection of miniature flights of steps, of five steps each, carved on small square loose blocks of stone, which have been left here by pilgrims as votive offerings, but with what object it is not clear. (Plates LXIV—LXVI.)

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The wooden images, bedaubed with red paint and much weatherworn, were found lying in the inner courtyard. They are worshipped by the people under the names of Kharujālī and Mahāmārī. An examination of them shows that they are Roman Catholic images, probably taken from some old ruined church in or about Sālsette. "Mahāmārī" (? Mahā-Marie) is a representation of the Annunciation, in which the Virgin Mary stands upon a crescent moon with a crown upon her head and clothed in flowing garments. Around her, forming an oval frame, is a garland of flowers. The other image is that of St. Anne, with the infant Mary upon her knee. The first was probably a panel in a church door or screen, while the second is a complete statue which may have come from a niche.

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The Jaina cave, which is excavated in one of the lower cliffs of the Chāndor fort hill, just above the town to the east, is a roughly-cut small room entered by a single doorway and supported, within, by two heavy clumsily-cut square columns. Around the sides of the cave are scores of images, large and small, most of them being those of the tīrthankaras. On the back, or west wall, is the principal image, that of Chandrāprabha, with the crescent moon carved below him. Upon the pilaster, on either side of him, are two little groups of the twenty-four tīrthankaras. Beyond these are the two images so frequently met with in Jaina caves—the man on an elephant on the one side and the woman on a tiger, beneath a tree, on the other. Very fine images of these two are found in the Indrā Sabha cave at Elūra, where they are known as Indra and Indrani. They possibly represent some great local patron of the Jaina religion and his wife. Such portrait statues are common in Gujarāt temples—the statues of Vastupāla and Tejpāla, and their wives, in the famous marble temples of Dilwara at Mt. Abu for instance. At the top of the pilasters, on either side of Chandrāprabha, is a small image of Sarasvatī. Parśvanātha also figures upon the walls. Upon the south wall of the cave are images of Sarasvatī and a four-armed Devī. These are red-leaded and worshipped, the latter as Kālikā Mātā, dirty bits of cloth being wound about her to represent her garments. On the floor, midway between the two pillars, is a tortoise in low relief.

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Near the top of the ascent to this cave, where the way leads up some rock-cut steps, are some miniature steps cut out in the rock, similar to the little votive steps at Renukā’s temple. In the rock, a little higher up the hillside, is a water cistern.

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In the top of Indrāi fort, above the upper cliffs, towards the north end and facing east, is a row of thirteen caves varying from twelve to twenty feet square. They are in a continuous row, being separated from one another by thin partition walls. Each has its doorway, two windows, and verandah, and, in front of one, the largest, about the middle of the line, are two pillars supporting the outer eave of the verandah. In the middle of each of three of the partition walls is a doorway connecting the two adjacent caves. There is nothing about these excavations to indicate for what use they were intended; the absence of images would show that they were probably not used for religious purposes. They were possibly intended to afford shelter to a garrison in ancient times.

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Linked texts (4)

Vālmīkirāmāyaṇa — Vālmīki, Sanskrit
Jagesvara
Ambarnātha
Vratakhaṇḍa — Hemādri, Sanskrit