History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s8.12

v2.c24.s8.12

The two exceptional temples above alluded to are, first, one called the Chausath Joginî, or sixty-four female demons. It consists merely of a courtyard, measuring 102 ft. by 59½ ft. and surrounded by sixty-four small cells, with one larger in the back wall, each of which is surmounted by a small spire, as shown in the woodcut (No. 291). This is essentially like a Jaina arrangement (see Temple of Neminâth, for instance—Woodcut No. 280, page 32); but there is only a resemblance. We know of at least two other old temples dedicated to these Joginîs: one is at Rânîpur Jhariâl in the Pâtna estate, to the south of Sambhalpur, also with sixty-five cells or recesses,² and another at Bherâghât, 12 miles below Jabalpur, with eighty-one recesses for the sixty-four Joginîs and their congeners.¹ Both of these are circular enclosures with the shrines ranged round the inside of the walls. The temple itself it is true has gone—if any central structure ever existed—but what we see is probably as old as the 9th century, if not older.²