Medieval Jainism

SR No.: 011082
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhasker Anand Saletore
Publisher: Karnataka Publishing House
Total Pages: 448
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 27 MB

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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM
gulaguñji) twisted round their arms and legs in the manner found in cave temples, and a serpent (kukkuța-sarpa) at their feet.1 They represent the ideal sainyäsin who stood in meditation until the ant-hills arose at his feet and creeping plants grew round his limbs. The Digambaras call him Gomata, Gummața, or Dorbali—a figure who is not at all prominent in the pantheon of the śvetāmbaras of the north.
Of the basadis built in the Vijayanagara age those at Mūdubidre deserve a passing note. These basadis are much plainer structures than Hindu temples, with their pillars that look like logs of wood, their angles partially chambered off, suggesting that their originals were built of wood. This supposition is strengthened by the fact that there is epigraphic evidence which we have already cited in the previous pages, that shows that the earlier basadis were built of wood. Fergusson rightly remarks that nothing can exceed the richness or variety with which the temples of Mūdubidre are carved. Their ornamentation is almost fantastic, and no two pillars are alike in design and beauty.2
The eighteen basadis of Mūdubidre are not the only specimens of the architectural skill of the Jainas of the Vijayanagara age. The five-pillared shrine opposite the basadi at Guruvāyinakere in Tuļuva, about which unfortunately no details are available in epigraphs, is said to be unique in the history of the southern Jaina architectural school. This fivepillared shrine with access to the upper chambers, is so unlike the four-pillared pavilions of the Hindu temples common in southern India. At the base of the temple are a number
1. Of the three famous statues that at Vēņūru is, I think, uncommonly serene and smiling.
2. Fergusson, History of Indian and Eastern Architecture, II. pp. 76-79. (rev. ed.)