Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/32

 12 JAINA ARCHITECTURE. BOOK V, not perhaps the earliest are found figures of the Jaina Tirthankaras and their attendants. 1 Close to the Hathi-gumpha is a small cave, known as Sarpa, the whole fronton of which over the doorway is occupied by a great three-headed Naga, and may be as old as the Hathi cave. The inscription on it merely says that it is "the un- equalled chamber of Chulakama," who seems also to have exca- vated another cave here, to the west of the Hathi-gumpha, called Haridasa 2 a long room with three doorways behind a verandah. Besides these, and smaller caves to be noticed hereafter, the great interest of the Udayagiri caves centres in two the so- called Gane^a cave, and that called the Raj Rani, Rani-ka-naur, or Rani Hansapura, or simply Rani-gumpha, from a baseless Hindu tradition that it was excavated by the Rani of Lala- tendra Ke^ari, the reputed builder of the Bhuvane^war temple in the /th century. The former is a small cave, consisting of two cells, together 30 ft. long by 10 ft. wide, in front of which is a verandah, slightly longer, that was once adorned with five pillars, though only three are now stand- ing (Woodcut No. 266). 3 There is an inscrip- tion on the back wall of this cave in 266. GanemCave. (From mediaeval characters, dedicating it to Jagan- a Plan by Mr. Locke.) nath ; but this is evidently an addition, pro- m> bably cut when the image of Gane^a was also inserted. 4 The style of the architecture may be judged of from the annexed woodcut, representing one of its pillars (Woodcut No. 267). They are of extreme simplicity, being square piers, changing into octagons in the centre only, and with a slight bracket of very wooden construction on each face. The four doorways leading into the cells are adorned with the usual horseshoe - formed canopies copied from the 1 It is to be regretted that when the Bengal Government twice sent survey parties to Orissa, and spent so much on the publication of their work, no adequate directions were given as to what should be observed and illustrated. 2 This was called Pawan-gumph& by Prinsep probably by mistake. The names attached to the different caves, however, are much confused in the different accounts : that called Vaikuntha- puri by Kittoe and R. Mitra seems to be now called Svargapuri ; the Alakapuri, a double-storeyed cave, is apparently the Svargapuri of Rajendralal Mitra, who mixes up the Alakapuri and Chhota Hathi-gumpha; the Jodev cave of Kittoe has been called Jayavijaya ; the names of Patalapftri and Manchapuri have been interchanged by Rajendralal ; and so on, making it almost impossible to reconcile the various accounts. 'Official Report to Bengal Government, by Babu Manmohan Chakravarti,' August 1902. 3 A recent attempt has been made on the part of Government to "restore" these caves. This was ill-advised, and the restored elephants at the entrance steps here do not conform to the original figures, whilst the new pillars do little credit to the Executive. 4 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' vol. vi. p. 1075.