Siddhachal Caves or Siddhanchal Jain Collosi are Jain cave monuments and colossal carved into the rock face inside the Urvahi Gate of the Gwalior Fort in

Gwalior Gwalior (Hindi: , ) is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; It is known as the Music City of India having oldest Gwalior gharana, musical gharana in existence. It is a major sports, cultural, industrial, and political c ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. There are the most visited among the five groups of Jain rock carvings in the Gwalior Fort hill. They were built over time starting in the 14th-century, but most are dated to the 15th-century CE. Many of the statues were defaced and destroyed under the orders of the Muslim Emperor

Babur Babur (; 14 February 148326 December 1530; born Zahīr ud-Dīn Muhammad) was the founder of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. He was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan through his father and mother respectively. He was also ...

of the

Mughal dynasty The Mughal dynasty () or the House of Babur (), was a Central Asian dynasty of Turco-Mongol tradition, Turco-Mongol origin that ruled large parts of the Indian subcontinent from the early 16th to the 19th century. The dynasty was a cadet branch ...

in the 16th century, while a few repaired and restored after the fall of the Mughal dynasty and through the late 19th century by Scindia dynasty and Jain community. The statues depict all 24 Tirthankaras. They are shown in both seated Padmasana posture as well as standing

Kayotsarga Kayotsarga ( , ) is a yogic posture which is an important part of the Jain meditation. It literally means "dismissing the body". A tirthankara is represented either seated in yoga posture or standing in the kayotsarga posture. ''Kayotsarga' ...

posture, in the typical naked form of Jain iconography. The reliefs behind some of them narrate scenes from the Jain legends. The site is about from the South-East Group of Gopachal rock cut Jain monuments and about northwest of the Teli Temple within the Gwalior Fort. The Siddhachal Jain collosi cave temple is one of the

Archaeological Survey of India The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is an Indian government agency that is responsible for archaeological research and the conservation and preservation of cultural historical monuments in the country. It was founded in 1861 by Alexander ...

's ''Adarsh Smarak Monument'' along with other monuments in the Gwalior Fort.

Location

The Siddhachal collosi cave temples are located inside fortifications of the Urvahi valley, a part of the fort of Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh, immediately below the northwestern walls of the fortress. The Gwalior city and the fort is connected to other Indian cities by major highways NH 44 and 46 (Asian Highway 43 and 47), Gwalior junction railway station and Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia Airport (

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is an airline trade association founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff conferences tha ...

: GWL). It is located near other historic Hindu and Jain temples from the medieval era.

History

The Siddhachal cave temples are a part of nearly 100 Jain monuments found in and around the Gwalior Fort, all dated to be from the 14th to 15th centuries. The Siddhanchal colossi are near the Urwahi road, and most are dated to be from the 15th century, built in an era when

Delhi Sultanate The Delhi Sultanate or the Sultanate of Delhi was a Medieval India, late medieval empire primarily based in Delhi that stretched over large parts of the Indian subcontinent for more than three centuries.

had collapsed and fragmented, a Hindu kingdom was back in power in Gwalior region and before

had ended the Delhi Sultanate and replaced it with his

. The inscriptions found near the monuments credit them to the Tomar kings, and they range from the 1440 to 1453 CE. The Siddhachal Caves were complete by about 1473 CE. Some 60 years after they had been completed, the statues were defaced and desecrated around 1527 when the Emperor Babur ordered their destruction.Gwalior Fort: Rock Sculptures
A Cunningham, Archaeological Survey of India, pages 364-370, Quote: "In 1527, the Urvahi Jinas were mutilated by the Mughal emperor Babar, a fact he records in his memoirs". Babur explained in a memoir, The Jain cave temples within the Gwalior Fort were, however, not destroyed, just mutilated by chopping off the faces, the sexual organs and their limbs. Centuries later, the Jain community restored many of the statues by adding back stucco heads on the top of the damaged idols.

Description

The Siddhachal Caves are rock-cut monuments with Jain collosi. They are found on both sides of the slope of the Urwahi road in the fort, along the Urwahi valley. The monuments include many caves, small reliefs on the walls, as well as 22 colossi. The largest of these are for

Rishabhanatha Rishabhanatha (Devanagari: ऋषभनाथ), also Rishabhadeva (Devanagari: ऋषभदेव, ), Rishabha (Devanagari: ऋषभ, ) or Ikshvaku (Devanagari: इक्ष्वाकु, ''Ikṣvāku''), is the first (Supreme preacher) ...

(Adinatha), identifiable by the bull emblem carved on the pedestal under his foot, with a height of . Other colossi include a seated Neminatha (shell icon on his pedestal), Parshvanatha with serpent cover over his head and

Mahavira Mahavira (Devanagari: महावीर, ), also known as Vardhamana (Devanagari: वर्धमान, ), was the 24th ''Tirthankara'' (Supreme Preacher and Ford Maker) of Jainism. Although the dates and most historical details of his lif ...

(lion icon on his pedestal).Gwalior Fort
Archaeological Survey of India, Bhopal Circle, India (2014)

Gallery

File:7th to 15th century Siddhachal caves Gopachal, Jain tirthankaras in Gwalior fort, 1885 photo.jpg, View of the caves below the fort in 1885 File:Jain Temple Fort Gwalior - panoramio.jpg, Jain Temple Fort Gwalior File:Siddhachal Caves - Devi.jpg, Jain Goddess File:Siddhachal Caves - Panels.jpg, Panel with Arihant

References

Citation

Sources

* {{Jainism topics Jain temples in Madhya Pradesh 7th-century Jain temples Religious buildings and structures destroyed in the Muslim period in the Indian subcontinent Tourist attractions in Gwalior Jain rock-cut architecture Colossal Jain statues in India Jain caves in India