Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

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YAŠASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
The sacred sites of Mount Abu mentioned in the Arbudakhanda of the Skandapuräna include Kanakhala (chap. 26 ) and Candikāśrama (chap. 36), or the hermitage of Candikā, which appears to have been a shrine of the goddess with an attached monastery. Both Kanakhala and Candikāśrama are mentioned in the Abu inscription of the Saiva ascetic Kedārarāśi, which gives a detailed account of his building activities at Kanakhala. The inscription was incised in 1208 A. D. during the reign of Dhārāvarşa at Abu under the suzerainty of Bhīma II of Gujarat. The record opens with verses in praise of Śiva and Ujjain, and enumerates the succession of teachers of the Capala or Capalīya sect which seems to have been an order of Saiva monks in Mālava. Altogether eight teachers are mentioned; and the first teacher Tāpasa, a great devotee of Candisa or Siva, came from the New Monastery (Nūtanamatha) at Ujjain, and became the head of the Candikāśrama which was, as we have seen, located at Mount Abu, Kedārarāśi, the last teacher to be mentioned must have lived in the last quarter of the twelfth century; and to judge from the succession of teachers and disciples, Tāpasa may have become the head of the Candikāśrama about the middle of the eleventh century. As regards Kedārarāsi, he carried out an extensive building programme, according to his inscription. He renovated the entire site of Kanakhala with stoneslabs (uttāna-patta), and provided it with an enclosure with lofty walls. He repaired also the temple of Atulanātha, built two new massive temples of Siva in front of the shrine of Kanakhalanātha, and erected a row of pillars of black stone, in the mandapa of the temple of Kanakhalasambhu. His sister Mokseśvarī also built a beautiful temple of Siva at the place."
The capital of the Paramāra Chiefs of Abu until about the beginning of the 14th century was at Candrāvatī, now a small village at the junction of the Sivālan with the Banās river near the south end of Mount Abu and in the Sirohi State. Here the numerous temples were constructed of white marble, a rare phenomenon in the history of Hindu architecture; and many of them must have been dedicated to Siva, as Saivism was the prevailing religion in this area. The evidence of sculptures, scanty though it is, points to the same conclusion. In one of the marble edifices, for instance, the principal figures were a three-headed statue with a female seated on his knee, sitting on a car, with a large goose in front (i. e. Brahmã); Siva with twenty arms; Bhairava with twenty arms, one holding a human head by the hair, a victim lying beneath, and a female on each side; one drinking the blood falling from the head. Unfortunately Candrāvati is in ruins, and no idea can be formed of the cults practised in its beautiful temples.
1 An Abu inscription of the reign of Bhimadeva II, Indian Antiquary, Vol.
XI, p. 220. 2 Candrāyati is one of the tragedies of Indian archaeology. Twenty marble edifices
of different sizes were still in existence when the spot was first visited by Sir Charles Colville and his party in 1824. Nevertheless, about this time, the petty Chief of Girwar, a few miles to the northwest of Candrăvati, who regularly sold the marble materials, was called by Colonel Tod 'the depredator and salesman