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 143

CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE, ETC.
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always, invariable in attitude, whether that be seated or standing. Most of the images belong to the Digambara sect or school, are nude. Small portable images of the saint are made of crystal, alabaster, soapstone, blood-stone, and various other materials; while the larger are carved from whatever kind of stone is locally available. He also mentions a life-size brass image of Sāntiswara at Yênür, erect and enshrined in burnished silver and brass-work variegated with red ornaments.131 Each Tirthankara is distinguished from another by his colour, his chinna and lānchhana, and the Yakşas and Yakșiņis who attend on him; the Svetāmbara images differ from the Digambara particularly in the nudity and absolute lack of ornament in the latter.132 But, in the words of Mr. Nänälāl C. Metha, "Somehow or other the aesthetic element was overshadowed by other considerations, and size rather than strength in sculpture, elaboration of detail more than the beauty of form or out-line in building, and narration more than accomplished expression in pictures, become the dominant qualities of Indian art as developed under the austere influence of Jainism." 133
Another peculiar contribution of the Jainas, not only to Karnãțaka but also to the whole of Indian or even Eastern art, is the free-standing pillar, found in front of almost every basti or Jaina temple in Karnāṭaka. “In the whole range of Indian art, " observes Smith, “there is nothing, perhaps, equal to these Kanara pillars for good taste. A particularly elegant example, 52} ft. in height, faces a Jain temple at Mudbidre. The material is granite, and the design is of singular grace (c. Irth or I2th cent. A. D.).” 134 There are about twenty such pillars in the District of South Kanara alone, which made many other distinctive contributions to Jaina art, as we shall notice in the course of this chapter. There are two kinds of such pillars in
13! Walhouse cited by Smith, op. cit., pp. 238, 268. 139 Burges, Digambara Jain Iconography. Ind Ant. XXXII p. 459 f, 193 Metha, Studies in Indian Painting, p. 22. 134 Smith, op. cit.i p. 22.