Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/102

 74 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. BOOK V. BASTiS. The principal group of Bastfs of the Jains, above the Ghats, is that at Sravana Belgola. There are there two hills the Indragiri, on whose summit the colossal image just described stands, and dominates the plain. On a shoulder of the other, called Chandragiri, stand the Bastis, fifteen in number. As might be expected from their situation, they are all of the Dravidian style of architecture, and are consequently built in gradually receding storeys, each of which is ornamented with small simulated cells, as was explained above, vol. i., p. 172, and will be more fully described presently. No instance occurs among them of the curvilinear jikhara or spire, which is uni- versal with the northern Jains, except in the instance of Elura above alluded to. The following woodcut (No. 302) representing the Chamunda- raya and 5asana bastis on the north side of the Chandragiri hill, with the stambha in front of the Par^wanathaswami basti, conveys an idea of their general external appearance, which is more ornamental than that of the generality of northern Jaina temples. The outer wall of those in the north is quite plain. The southern ones are as frequently ornamented with pilasters and crowned with a row of ornamental cells. 1 The Chamunda-raya temple is the most imposing on the hill, both in style and dimensions, and was probably erected about 1135 A.D. Externally it measures about 70 ft. in length, exclusive of the porch on the east face, by 36 ft. across. Inside is a mandapa, or hall about 28 ft. wide by 29^ ft. deep. The Dravidian mode of roofing does not accept the dome on an octagon, and here a square of four round columns, 8 ft. 4 in. between centres, is surrounded by another of twelve octagonal pillars, 19 ft. between the centres of the corner pillars. Behind the hall is a vestibule about 1 8 ft. wide by 6 ft. deep, from which the small shrine is entered surrounded apparently by walls of unusual thickness to support the vimana or spjre. 2 The temple at the south side of this one is dedicated to Adfowar, but known as the 5asana basti, 1 The native Government Archaeologi- cal survey, carried on for many years past, has concerned itself almost exclusively with epigraphy. A few plans and detail drawings have been inserted in the 12 quarto volumes, but descriptive details are few and meagre ; while, for the drawings, scales are either wanting or too short and uncertain to be depended on, and the lithography so poor that measurements cannot always be trusted as accurate. 2 The measurements here are taken from the plan in Rice's ' Inscriptions at Sravana Belgola,' at Tr. p. 149, on the assumption that the scale is I : 147*5 possibly intended for 12 ft. to I in. The plan shows the walls round the shrine as about 12 J ft. thick.