Jainism and Karnataka Culture

SR No.: 011062
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: S R Sharma
Publisher: Karnataka Historical Research Society Dharwar
Publication Year: 1940
Total Pages: 263
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 9 MB

Page 138

104
JAINISM AND KARNATAKA CULTURE
'command respectful attention by their enormous mass and expression of dignified serenity'. That at Kārkala is 41 ft. 5 inches high, 10$ ft. broad and 10 ft. thick, weighing about 80 tons.119 “This is one of those colossal statues that are found in this part of the country”, says Walhouse, “statues truly Egyptian in size, and unrivalled throughout India as detached works..... Nude, cut from a single mass of granite, darkened by the monsoons of centuries, the vast statue stands upright, with arms hanging straight, but not awkwardly, down the sides in a posture of somewhat stiff but simple dignity.120 "
This figure of Gommateswara is indeed known only in Karņāțaka, and statues of that size are very rare elsewhere. 121 Gommațeśwara Bāhubali, or Bhujabali is supposed to have been the son of the first Tirthankara, Vţşabha, who attained salvation in that position of Kāyôtsarga. His feet are entwined with weeds and Kukkuța-sarpas. On the Candragiri Hill at Sravana Belgoļa is also another statue, that of Bharata, brother of Bābubali, of great size, broken below the knees, yet standing erect:
"A statue solid set
And moulded in colossal calm ". In the Jaina cave at Bādāmi a similar figure is seen which, in the opinion of Fergusson, is much older (c. 600 A. D.) than the three great monoliths, but represents the same individual—the ideal ascetic who stood in meditation until the ant-bills arose at his feet and creeping plants grew round bis limbs. " This Gomața, Gummața or Dorbali”, he also says, " has no prominent place in the Svetämbara pantheon, though
119 Cf. Fergussion, À Hlstory of Indian and Eastern Architectnre, II, pp.
72-3; Buchanan, Travels, III, p. 83. 120 Cf. Sturrock, South Canara, I, p. 86 f. 121 At Närä in Japan is a bionże statue of Buddha 50 ft. high; and at
Bāmiyan, a stone image, also of Buddha, 173 ft. high. See, Carpentier, Buddhism and Christranity. p. 15; Nariman, The Indian Daily Mail Annual, 1926, p. 12. Cf. At Gwalior, Smith, op. cit., pp. 268-70.