DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0171
THE CAVES, MAHAVALLIPUR. 149
description of the caves at Mahavallipur, though it has very little
claim to be considered as a cave, or as a rock-cut temple. It is quite
exceptional here, and its structural arrangements belong to a
different age from all those surrounding it. It probably was erected
at the same time as the structural Vimana over the Yamapuri Cave
described above, and may probably belong to the time of the Cholas,
in or about the eleventh century of our era.
It consists of a large Mandapa or porch 48 feet by 23, with twelve
structural columns in three rows erected in front of a great bas-relief
in a recessed portion of the rock. Six of the pillars have Sardulas or
Yalis at the bottom, and the rest are square with carving upon them,
but all have the drooping bracket capital so common in modern
buildings in the south of India. The roof is formed of large slabs
of gneiss laid over the lintels, which join the heads of the pillars.
The sculptured decoration of the cave consists of one long bas-
relief following the sinuosities of the rock some 45 feet in length
and from 10 to 11 feet in height in the centre. It represents Krishna
holding up the hill of Govarddhana. To the left is Balarama
leaning on another male figure, and on each side are numerous Gfo-
palas and Gopis with cows, calves, and a bull. On the return of the
wall are lions and other animals. The sculpture of all these is much
more developed than those in the Dasa Avatara and Kailasa at Elura,
and is almost certainly of later date, thus confirming the compara-
tively modern date of this hybrid temple, which, except from its
locality as one of a series, is hardly worthy of much attention.
On the top of the hill, but like the Vimana over the Yamapuri
cave placed unsymetrically with this porch, a very splendid struc-
tural Gropura has been commenced in the style of architecture
prevalent in the eleventh or twelfth century, and evidently a part of
some great design. It had not, however, been carried up higher
than the sub-basement, and then like everything else at this place,
abandoned and left unfinished.
8. The Mandapa of the Pancha Pandavas.1—A few yards north of
tho last, and adjoining the great sculptured rock, is a large but
unfinished cave, 50 feet wide in front, and about 40 feet deep at the
*?gbt end, and 33 feet at the left. It has six octagonal pillars in
°nt rising from Sardula bases (one is broken) with broad square
No. 13 on Care's map; Braddock's No. 12, p. 92 ; see oho pp. 4, 206.
description of the caves at Mahavallipur, though it has very little
claim to be considered as a cave, or as a rock-cut temple. It is quite
exceptional here, and its structural arrangements belong to a
different age from all those surrounding it. It probably was erected
at the same time as the structural Vimana over the Yamapuri Cave
described above, and may probably belong to the time of the Cholas,
in or about the eleventh century of our era.
It consists of a large Mandapa or porch 48 feet by 23, with twelve
structural columns in three rows erected in front of a great bas-relief
in a recessed portion of the rock. Six of the pillars have Sardulas or
Yalis at the bottom, and the rest are square with carving upon them,
but all have the drooping bracket capital so common in modern
buildings in the south of India. The roof is formed of large slabs
of gneiss laid over the lintels, which join the heads of the pillars.
The sculptured decoration of the cave consists of one long bas-
relief following the sinuosities of the rock some 45 feet in length
and from 10 to 11 feet in height in the centre. It represents Krishna
holding up the hill of Govarddhana. To the left is Balarama
leaning on another male figure, and on each side are numerous Gfo-
palas and Gopis with cows, calves, and a bull. On the return of the
wall are lions and other animals. The sculpture of all these is much
more developed than those in the Dasa Avatara and Kailasa at Elura,
and is almost certainly of later date, thus confirming the compara-
tively modern date of this hybrid temple, which, except from its
locality as one of a series, is hardly worthy of much attention.
On the top of the hill, but like the Vimana over the Yamapuri
cave placed unsymetrically with this porch, a very splendid struc-
tural Gropura has been commenced in the style of architecture
prevalent in the eleventh or twelfth century, and evidently a part of
some great design. It had not, however, been carried up higher
than the sub-basement, and then like everything else at this place,
abandoned and left unfinished.
8. The Mandapa of the Pancha Pandavas.1—A few yards north of
tho last, and adjoining the great sculptured rock, is a large but
unfinished cave, 50 feet wide in front, and about 40 feet deep at the
*?gbt end, and 33 feet at the left. It has six octagonal pillars in
°nt rising from Sardula bases (one is broken) with broad square
No. 13 on Care's map; Braddock's No. 12, p. 92 ; see oho pp. 4, 206.