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CAVE-10 (GANESA-GUMPHA):
Reaching the terrace the visitor will turn right to see Cave-10, which
lies a few metres away. The popular name of the cave is in consequence of
the figure of Ganesa, carved on the back of its right cell. The cave
consists of two dwelling cells with low ceilings and a benched verandah in
front.
The
verandah had originally five pillars of the usual type, but the two right
ones were knocked off, probably deliberately, at the time when the relief
of Ganesa was carved on the wall, the intention being apparently to
provide more space in front of the right cell, then converted into some
sort of a sanctuary. The two detached elephants; each holding branches of
a mango tree over a lotus, flanking the approach of this chamber were
probably added in this period.
On the front face of the left pilaster is carved in high relief a
standing turbaned guard, clad in a dhoti and a scarf, and ornamented with
kundalas, his right hand holding a spear and left akimbo on the chest.
Above his head, carved against the bracket is a recumbent bull.
The brackets of all the pillars are intact, but the outer ones are
weatherworn. They are relieved with standing figures, each with one,
either male or female, holding flowers, spouted vessel, trays and others.
The sides of the brackets are relieved with flowers including
honeysuckles. The shelf of the verandah is carved with a railing; so also
is the lowest portion of the back wall of the verandah between the
pilasters.
Each cell has two door-openings with sloping jambs and the usual
decorations in the form of pilasters with capitals consisting of a pair of
addorsed animals (deer, bull, horse and lion) seated on a corbelled abacus
and a stepped base, and arches filled with flowers and creepers, issuing
from the mouths of makaras, with nandipada or srivatsa in the top centre.
The crowns of the outer edges of the arches are distinctly pointed.
The spaces between the first and second doorways on the one hand and the
third and fourth on the other are relieved with two scenes, each above a
railing supported by three squattish pot-bellied male and female figures.
The remaining spaces between the left wall of the verandah and the first
doorway, between the second and third doorways and between the fourth
doorway and the right wall have the representations of a barrel-shaped
roof of a structure, crowned by finials against a background of railing
and supported by squattish figures.
The left scene, as already mentioned, is a replica of the abduction-scene
carved on the façade of the upper storey of Cave-1 (Rani-gumpha).
At the entrance of an artificial cave, by the side of a tree, is a man
lying on a bed with his head resting on his right hand. A woman sits
watching him near his feet with her right hand placed on his left thigh.
Near the bed are his sword and shield. Next is seen a woman leading a man,
walking with a stoop, towards the first pair, followed by the duel between
a man and a woman, each armed with a shield and a sword. The scene ends
with the man carrying off the vanquished woman.
Legend Behind the Second Scene
The second scene, probably unconnected with the first, recalls the
popular story of the elopement of 'Vasavadatta', princess of 'Ujjayinin',
with king 'Udayana' of Kausambi in the company of 'Vasantaka'. In the
extreme left is a party of kilted soldiers, armed with swords and shields,
hotly pursuing three persons, mounted on the back of an elephant.
One of the elephant-riders is a woman, who is in the role of a mahout,
holding the elephant-goad in her right hand and a harp in her left; the
middle figure, dressed in a kilt, who seems to be the chief man, is
shooting arrows at the pursuers, and the hindermost, apparently a
companion, is tempting the pursuers by showering coins at them from a bag.
One of the kilted soldiers is prostrate on the ground, possibly to collect
the coins.
Between the first episode and the second, which depicts the dismounting
of the three persons form the kneeling elephant, is a tree, indicative of
the wood where the scene took place. Next, the archer, no longer in kilt,
leads the other two, the woman carrying a bunch of mangoes in her right
hand and with her left hand resting on the shoulder of the archer and the
companion, with the money-bag placed on his right shoulder.
Lastly, the woman is in a half-reclining posture on a bed, slightly
disconsolate, and the man with folded hands is trying to console her. The
companion holding the bow of his master and the moneybag now on his left
shoulder is on the extreme right. The story of Udayana and Vasavadatta is
found not only in Buddhist and Brahmanical literature but in Jain works as
well.
The floors of the cells are raised in the rear end. In the partition-wall
between the two cells there is a small window opening. The left cell has a
crude late representation of a Tirthankara seated in yoga-mudra. In the
right cell is the figure of Ganesa, holding a bowl of laddukas, hatchet,
radish and rosary and seated in maharajalila on a footed seat, below which
is depicted his mount mouse.
To the right of Ganesa is a five-lined record, in characters of the
eighth-ninth century, of a physician 'Bhimata', son of 'Nannata', incised
in the reign of the 'Bhauma' king 'Santikara'. Another inscription of the
same Bhimata occurs on the wall of a cave excavated in the Dhauli hill.
CAVE-11
(JAMBESVARA-GUMPHA):
Situated to the right of the footpath descending down the hill from the
west, the cave is a low cell with two plain door-openings preceded by a
benched verandah, which is supported on a pillar and two pilasters, their
brackets being plain.
Incised on the façade above the right door is an inscription
recording that it was the cave of 'Nakiya', wife of 'Mahamade'. To the
northwest of the cave, at a lower level, is a small cave open in front.
CAVE- 12 (BAGH-GUMPHA):
To the south-east of cave-11 is a small cave, Bagh-gumpha, so called on
account of its front capriciously shaped into the semblance of the head of
a tiger with the distended upper jaw, full of teeth, forming the roof of
the verandah and the gullet forming the entrance-opening.
The door-jambs slope inwards and are flanked by pilasters with
ghata-bases above stepped pedestals and with capitals, each consisting of
a pair of crouching elephants, seated back-to-back on a stepped abacus
above a bell-shaped lotus. Over the door is a plain arch, pointed at the
top of the outer edge, with a railing on both sides.
On the right ceiling of the verandah is the representation of a lizard,
while on the outer wall, to the right of the arch, is an inscription in
two lines, with a triangle headed symbol within a railing at the beginning
and a svastika at the end. The inscription states that the cave was of the
town-judge 'Sabhuti'.