History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v2.c24.s8.39

v2.c24.s8.39

One of the most interesting Jaina monuments of the age is the tower, formerly known as Srî Allata's,² which still adorns the head of Chitor (Woodcut No. 295, next page), and is one probably of a great number of similar monuments that may at one time have existed. From their form, however, they are frail, and trees and human violence so easily overthrow them, that we ought not to wonder that so few remain. This one is a singularly elegant specimen of its class, about 75 ft. in height, and adorned with sculpture and mouldings from the base to the summit.³ It stands on a basement 20 ft. square and 9 ft. high, with a stair on the south side, leading to the doorway, which is 6 ft. 2 in. above the platform. The shaft of the tower is 12 ft. 10 in. square below, and is four storeys high to the open canopy of twelve pillars, the floor of which is 64 ft. 2 in. from the ground. An inscription once existed lying near its base, which is said to have given its date as A.D. 895,⁴ though the slab has now been lost. This, however, is much too early a date for the style of the structure; and the discovery of a reference in a manuscript poem of late date ascribing it to Kumârapâla of Gujarât (A.D. 1142-1172), though the style is in no way inconsistent with such a date, as it is unsupported by any nearly contemporary record, is of no historical value.¹ The tower most probably belongs to the 12th century, and, it is said, was dedicated to Âdinâth, the first of the Jaina Tîrthankaras, and nude figures of them are repeated some hundreds of times on the face of the tower, distinguishing it as a Digambara monument, whilst Kumârapâla was a Swetâmbara.²