Manmodi Caves
Manmodi Caves | |
---|---|
Location | Junnar |
Coordinates | 19°11′09″N 73°53′03″E / 19.1859°N 73.8843°E |
Geology | Basalt |
The Manmodi Caves are a complex of a rock-cut caves about 3 km to the south of the city of Junnar in India.[1] Other caves surrounding the city of Junnar are: Tulja Caves, Shivneri Caves and Lenyadri caves.[1]
It is thought that the caves were positioned on natural trade routes, formed by passes leading from the coast to the basaltic plateau of the
Description
The Manmodi hill lies south from Junnar, at a distance of about a 3 km. It contains three groups of excavations, the second of which is nearest to the road, and the first a considerable way along the north-west face of the hill, near where it turns to the north-east.[3]
The caves are classified in three groups, also having specific names:[4]
- Bhutalinga (भूत लेणी) group, with an inscription by a Yavanadonor.
- Amba-Ambika (अंबा-अंबिका) group
- Bhimasankar (भीमाशंकर) group, southeast of Manmodi hill, with the inscription of Ayama, minister of Nahapana in 124 CE.
Bhutalinga group of caves
The Chaitya
These caves are the most western caves in the Manmodi group (19°11′17″N 73°52′42″E / 19.1880°N 73.8784°E). The principal cave here is an unfinished
Over the opening of the entrance, the place usually occupied by the window is divided fan-wise into seven petal-shaped compartments with a semi-circular centre, round the edge of the inner member of which is an inscription, in one line, of
"yavanasa Chaṁdānaṁ deyadhama gabhadā[ra]"
𑀬𑀯𑀦𑀲 𑀙𑀁𑀤𑀸𑀦𑀁 𑀟𑁂𑀬𑀥𑀫 𑀕𑀪𑀤𑀸𑀭
"The meritorious gift of the
In the middle compartment of the larger semi-circle is a standing female figure with a lotus flower on each side, the next compartments have elephants standing on lotus flowers and holding water-jars, as so often represented beside the figures of Sri or Lakshmi on old Buddhist works. In the next compartment on each side stands a male figure, his hands joined over or in front of his head, doing puja towards the central figure; and in the two outer spaces are females in similar attitudes, with a lotus flower and bud beside each. The style of art in which the figure of Sri Lakshmi is here represented is so similar to that employed for the same purpose at Bharhut, that there can be little doubt that they are of about the same age. The material, however, in which they are executed, and their purposes are so different, that it would be impossible, from that alone, to say which of the two is the earliest.[3]
Over and outside these the façade of the great arch projects, with ribs in imitation of wooden rafters under it. On each side the finial is a male figure: that on the left holds a
On the projecting frieze over all are seven Chaitya-window ornaments, with smaller ones between their finials, and two on the faces of each jamb. Inside the cave, three octagonal pillars on the right side are blocked out, as is also the dagoba, but without the capital. There is a horizontal soft stratum in the rock, which has probably led to the work being relinquished in its present unfinished state. This is very much to be regretted, as the whole design of this cave is certainly the most daring, though it can hardly be called the most successful, attempt on the part of the early cave architects to emancipate themselves from the trammels of the wooden style they were trying to adapt to lithic purposes.[3]
At
Buddhist cells
Higher up the rock, on the east or left side of this, are four cells with neatly-carved façades, each door having a
Amba-Ambika group of caves
Near the south-east end of the hill is the second group, consisting of an unfinished Chaitya-cave and a number of ruined cells and viharas (19°11′09″N 73°53′03″E / 19.1858°N 73.8843°E). This Chaitya-cave is somewhat on the plan of the
The front is quite rough, but, if finished, would probably have been similar to the Bedsa Chaitya cave. It is almost covered with inscriptions, but from their positions and the roughness of the surfaces on which they are carved, it may naturally be inferred that they are only the work of visitors, perhaps long after the work was relinquished. Few of them can be made out with any certainty. The cave faces north by east, and the floor is much filled up with mud. At the east side of it is a cell, also deep in earth, in which is a dagoba, the chhatri or umbrella carved on the roof, but the staff has been broken, evidently with a view to convert it into the usual Saiva emblem.
Jainism Cells
There are portions of other cells, and a fragment of an inscription beside some modern steps leading up to five cells above. The two at the west end are converted into one by cutting away the partition, and on the walls are three defaced figures perhaps of Jain figures.[11] This is dedicated to the goddess Ambika also the sasanadevi or patron goddess of the 23rd Tirthankara Neminatha. Here Brahmans worship the mutilated image of Jain as a Shiva goddess.[3]
In the outer wall of another of these cells there have been a standing (Kayotsarga) and a sitting figure of Tirthankara, but these are now almost obliterated.[12][3]
Bhimasankar group of caves
The third group is round a comer of the hill to the south-east of these last, and at a considerably higher level, some of them almost inaccessible (19°10′49″N 73°53′13″E / 19.1803°N 73.8870°E). The first reached is a recess over a cell or cistern, with an inscription:[3]
Sivasamaputasa Simtabhati ? no deyadhama pati.
"For a pious gift of charity, from Simtabhati, son of Sivasarman"
A little beyond this, on the left side of a recess over the side of a water cistern, is another inscription in three lines, of which, however, the first letters are obliterated; still it is possible make out that it was [constructed by] "Ayama, the minister of Mahakshatrapa Svami
[Raño]jmahākhatapasa sāminahapānasa
[Ā]mātyasa Vachhasagotasa Ayamasa
[de]yadhama cha [po?] ḍhi maṭapo cha puñathaya vase 46 kato[16][15]
"The meritorious gift of a mandapa and cistern by Ayama of the Vatsa-gotra,
Prime Minister to the king, the great Satrap, the Lord Nahapana, made for merit, in the year 46."
Scrambling along the face of a precipice to the south, one can reach first a small
The hall is 33 feet deep, and about 12 feet wide; but at the back stands a mass of rock over 8 feet wide by 5.5 thick, with a squatting figure roughly sketched out on the front of it. This mass is very rotten behind, and at the left side of it is a well of excellent water.[3]
The other caves here are small and uninteresting.[3]
-
Manmodi Caves Ambika Group
-
Manmodi Caves – Bhootleni Chaitya
-
Manmodi Chaitya Hall facade medallion
-
Manmodi Caves Two story Vihara
-
The Bhimashankar caves
-
The Chaitya of Bhimasankar group
References
- ^ ISBN 978-90-04-18525-8.
- ISBN 978-90-04-18525-8.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Fergusson, James; Burgess, James (1880). The cave temples of India. London : Allen. pp. 258ff.
- ^ "Lenyadri Group of Caves, Junnar – Ticketed Monument – ArchaeologicalSurvey of India". asi.nic.in. Archaeological Society of India. Archived from the original on 10 April 2009. Retrieved 4 October 2017.
- ^ a b Burgess, Jas (1883). Archaeological Survey Of Western India. p. 95.
- ^ Chatterjee, Ramananda (1927). The Modern review: a monthly review and miscellany. Prabasi Press Private, Limited. p. 661.
The Scythian monarch Nahapana (...) The Chaitya-hall on the Manmodi hill at Junnar in the Nasik district also belongs to the period of the Scythian monarch
- ^ a b Religions and Trade: Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural Exchange between East and West, BRILL, 2013 p.97 Note 97
- ^ Journal of the Epigraphical Society of India. The Society. 1994. pp. iv.
- ^ Archaeological Survey of Western India. Government Central Press. 1879. pp. 43–44.
- ^ Karttunen, Klaus (2015). "Yonas and Yavanas in Indian Literature". Studia Orientalia. 116: 214.
- ISBN 978-81-8090-202-4.
- ^ Rao, P. R. Ramachandra (1984). Andhra Sculpture. Akshara.
- ^ Mirashi, Vasudev Vishnu (1981). The history and inscriptions of the Sātavāhanas and the Western Kshatrapas. Maharashtra State Board for Literature and Culture. p. 113.
- ^ Archaeological Survey of Western India. Government Central Press. 1879.
- ^ a b c Burgess, Jas (1883). Archaeological Survey Of Western India. p. 103.
- ^ Burgess, Jas (1883). Archaeological Survey Of Western India. p. Plate LIV No.11 (Junnar No.32).