Mediaeval Temples of the Dakhan c9.s6.4

c9.s6.4

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.