The Age of the Imperial Guptas c8.58

c8.58

Surrounding the main temple there were a number of smaller shrines, the plinth levels of which are much lower than that of the Daśāvatāra temple. But they appear to be of a later date from some carving on some of them. One of them bears on it a row of square rosettes, placed alternately between inverted stepped pyramids, a design too common in the mediæval Jain temples on the top of the hill at Deogadh. The excavation of the area surrounding the Daśāvatāra temple has revealed many interesting facts unknown to Cunningham and earlier writers. The first is that of large pillars with the regular Gupta decorative motifs of half and three-quarters medallions on the shaft and foliated vases at the top or the bottom. Several such have been discovered, it appears at different times, but the one which lies by the side of the new sculpture-shed nearest to the Daśāvatāra temple bears on it a longish inscription in two lines in characters of the late sixth century. Evidently such pillars were used in the four porches and the temple cannot be much earlier than 575 A.D. Another interesting feature discovered during the recent excavations is the presence of a number of vignettes in the medallions of *Caitya*-windows. One of them is very clearly a vignette within another, while the second shows a door-way or niche within a vignette. The number of *Caitya*-windows discovered prove the truth of the author's previous theories about the employment of these members in the flat-roofed temples of Bhumra and Nachna Kuthara. In addition to the figures inside the medallions discovered at these two places, the new Deogadh-finds include the well-known Sarnath motif, of twin columns with cruciform capitals inside the medallions of Caitya-windows.¹