DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0447
425
CHAPTER IY.
BRAHMANICAL CAYBS IN THE DEKHAN, MOMINABAT),
POONA, &c.
At Mominabad or Jogai Amba, in the Nizam of Haidarabad's
territory, are some Brahmanical and Jaina caves, architecturally of
a very plain type, to which it is difficult to assign an age with any
confidence. Tliey are just outside the town, in two low rocky knolls.
The largest (Plate LXYIII.) has an open court in front, measuring
about 90 feet by 85, in the middle of which stands a low pavilion
about 34| feet square outside, with a sloping roof. Inside it is an
oval platform for the Nandi or bull, the vehicle of Siva. The roof
within is supported by four perfectly plain square pillars. The hall
of the cave is 91 feet long by 45 deep, and its roof is upheld by
thirty-two similar pillars, 2 feet 3 inches square, each surmounted by
a bracket block, 5 feet long and 10 inches deep, on which lie the
architraves which run from end to end of the cave. In the back
wall are three small rooms and the principal shrine, containing the
faint traces of what appears to have been a Trimurti or triple-headed
image of Siva as combining the three characters of Eudra, Vishnu,
and Brahma. There is another small shrine in the left end of the
&ird aisle. Along the back wall has been a good deal of the
ordinary Saiva sculptures—the Saptamatras, the tdndava dance,
■Mahishasuri, &c, which may be of almost any age.
la the court, at each end of the front of the cave, stand two
large elephants cut out of the rock, and behind the mandap are other
two.
lo the west of this, across a small stream, are the remains of
°ther caves, but much destroyed by a current of water that runs
trough them, and overgrown by prickly-pear, &c. One of them
has been fully 100 feet long by 41 deep, but its roof is almost totally
estroyed. Like the Dasa Avatara at Elura, the great cave at
arusa, and others, the walls of it have been covered with rude
«*dptures both of the Avataras of Vishnu and of the forms and
ats of %a and his consort.1
1 y~~ ' ' '---------------------------------—----------------------■-------------------
vxvZy™ details ancl Ptons see Third Archmol Report, pp. 50-52, and Plates
•*HII, xxxiv.
CHAPTER IY.
BRAHMANICAL CAYBS IN THE DEKHAN, MOMINABAT),
POONA, &c.
At Mominabad or Jogai Amba, in the Nizam of Haidarabad's
territory, are some Brahmanical and Jaina caves, architecturally of
a very plain type, to which it is difficult to assign an age with any
confidence. Tliey are just outside the town, in two low rocky knolls.
The largest (Plate LXYIII.) has an open court in front, measuring
about 90 feet by 85, in the middle of which stands a low pavilion
about 34| feet square outside, with a sloping roof. Inside it is an
oval platform for the Nandi or bull, the vehicle of Siva. The roof
within is supported by four perfectly plain square pillars. The hall
of the cave is 91 feet long by 45 deep, and its roof is upheld by
thirty-two similar pillars, 2 feet 3 inches square, each surmounted by
a bracket block, 5 feet long and 10 inches deep, on which lie the
architraves which run from end to end of the cave. In the back
wall are three small rooms and the principal shrine, containing the
faint traces of what appears to have been a Trimurti or triple-headed
image of Siva as combining the three characters of Eudra, Vishnu,
and Brahma. There is another small shrine in the left end of the
&ird aisle. Along the back wall has been a good deal of the
ordinary Saiva sculptures—the Saptamatras, the tdndava dance,
■Mahishasuri, &c, which may be of almost any age.
la the court, at each end of the front of the cave, stand two
large elephants cut out of the rock, and behind the mandap are other
two.
lo the west of this, across a small stream, are the remains of
°ther caves, but much destroyed by a current of water that runs
trough them, and overgrown by prickly-pear, &c. One of them
has been fully 100 feet long by 41 deep, but its roof is almost totally
estroyed. Like the Dasa Avatara at Elura, the great cave at
arusa, and others, the walls of it have been covered with rude
«*dptures both of the Avataras of Vishnu and of the forms and
ats of %a and his consort.1
1 y~~ ' ' '---------------------------------—----------------------■-------------------
vxvZy™ details ancl Ptons see Third Archmol Report, pp. 50-52, and Plates
•*HII, xxxiv.