Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/39

 CHAP. II. ELURA JAINA CAVES. has roomy chapels at each side, and at the back is the shrine 8J ft. square, containing a seated figure of Mahavira. The front of the shrine is supported by two carved pillars, and at each side of the entrance is a Dwarapala carved on the wall as in Brahmantcal and later Buddhist caves. The style of the pillars and the whole execution point to about the 7th century as the probable date of the excavation. 1 Near Dharasinva, in the Haidarabad districts about 37 miles north from Sholapur, are several Jaina caves, of which two are of considerable size, the hall of the second in the group being quite 80 ft. deep and from 79 to 85 ft. across, with eight cells in each of the side walls and six in the back besides the shrine. The roof is supported, as at Bagh, by a double square of pillars, the outer of twenty and the inner of twelve piers. But the rock is a conglomerate of unequal texture, and has greatly decayed in parts. Much of the front wall and all the pillars of the verandah have fallen away, whilst the great frieze over the facade, once covered with bold Jaina sculptures, is so abraded as to be now unintelligible. Cave III., next to this, has a twenty pillared hall measuring about 59 ft. square, with five cells on each side and in the back the shrine and four cells. The verandah still retains its six pillars in front, and five doors lead from it into the hall. The next cave is about half the dimensions of this, and in all three the pillars, doorways, and friezes show remains of a good deal of ornate carving somewhat similar to what is found at Aurangabad, and on the later Ajanta caves. 2 At Kanhar, near Pitalkhora, are two Jaina caves, and there are others at Chamar Lena near Nasik, and seven at Ankai in Khandesh which are overlaid with sculpture. But these and others belong to the latest of rock excavations probably of the nth and I2th centuries and have been described and illustrated elsewhere. 3 JAINA CAVES. The Jaina group at Elura has been considered as the most modern there : an impression arising partly from the character of the sculptures themselves, which are of later Jaina style more, however, from the extreme difficulty of comparing rock- 1 ' Archaeological Survey of Western India/ vol. i. p. 37 and plates 47, 48 ; ' Cave Temples,' pp. 503-505, and plate 93- 2 Drawings and plans with an account of these caves are given in ' Archaeo- logical Survey of Western India,' vol. iii. pp. 4-8, and plates 1-8. 3 ' Cave Temples,' pp. 492, 493, and 505-508, with plates 94, 95 ; ' Archaeo- logical Survey of Western India,' vol. v. PP- 57-59> and plates 12, and 47-50. A few other Jaina caves exist at Junagadh, and scattered over the Dekhan. 'Cave Temples,' p. 490.