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JAINISM AND KARNATAKA CULTURE This interesting legend makes it clear that the Jainas employed Brāhmanical architects and sculptors as well. In the sequel we are told that the King of Kārkaļa said, “I will not let Kalkuda who has worked in my kingdom, work in another country ;” and he cut off his left arm and right leg. In spite of this, however, Kalkuļa went to Timmajila, 127 King of Yêņir, and did fine work with only one arm and one leg. His sister, Kallurți (another devil worshipped in South Kanara ), is said to have taken full revenge for the ill-treatment of her brother to which the fall of the Kārkala Wodeyars is attributed, 128 The legend also amply illustrates the life of a sculptor, his skill, his sense of honour, his hereditary attachment to his vocation, his small remuneration, as well as his hardships which often disabled him for life, though his indefatigable enthusiasm for his task was more than could be curbed by such calamities. But in spite of all this, we cannot fail to notice that lack of versatility in expression, which resulted in repeating the same acts and same forms over and over again-at Belguļa, at Kārkaļa, and also at Vêņūr,-almost like a machine turning out stereotyped blocks. “Numberless images might be figured,” says Smith, “without adding anything to the reader's knowledge of Indian art. They differ from one another merely in the degree of perfection attained in mechanical execution."129 There is in the Madras Museum, a Jaina image on the base of which are written the words that King Sālva Deva, 'a great lover of Sāhitya (literature)' 'made ( the image ) according to rule. '130 There are innumerable such images made of metal, stone, or even gems. The Jainas, as Walhouse has remarked, delighted in making their images of all substances and sizes, but almost
127 Evidently, Timmarājs who erected the Yêņār colossus. He must,
ther fore, bave bolonged to the Ajila or Ajalar family. See, Sturrock,
op. cit., p. 55. 128 Burnell, op. cit., p. 224. 129 Smith, op. cit., p. 268. 130 Rangáchärya, Inscriptions of the dradras Presidency, II, 395,
| SR No. | 011062 |
| Book Title | Jainism and Karnataka Culture |
| 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 |