Jaina Philosophy Historical Outline

SR No.: 006569
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Narendra Nath Bhattacharya
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publisher's Pvt Ltd New Delhi
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 242
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 56

Introduction 35
called Betta, a remarkable example of which is found on the summit of a hill at Sravana Belgola. The topmost section of the granite hill is fashioned into a gigantic statue (57ft. high) of Gommatesvara, the son of the first Jina Rṣabhanatha who resigned his kingdom to become an ascetic. The saint is represented as practising austerity, undisturbed by the serpents about his feet, the ant-hills rising to his thighs and the growing creeper that has already reached his shoulders. This huge sculpture was carved under the orders of Cămuṇḍa Rāja about AD 983.1 Two other similar colossal statues of Gommata are known, one at Karkal, 41 feet high, erected in AD 1432 and another at Veņur, 35 feet high, which was set up in AD 1604.
Some of the Jain temples at Deograh fort, Jhansi District, which date from the tenth century AD contain, besides the images of the Jinas, well known figures of Jain mythology including those of the Kṣetrapālas and Yakṣis. Most famous of all are the temples on Mount Abu, the Delwara group of which consists of four large temples. Of them the two most important ones are in certain respects unrivalled anywhere in India, the older of which was built in AD 1031 by Vimala Saha and the other, completed in AD 1230 by Tejaḥpāla and Vastupala. Both of the temples, constructed entirely of white marble, are similar in plan, relatively plain on the exterior but amazingly rich in interior decoration, each standing in a rectangular walled area, surrounded by recesses with numerous statues. The central structure is a cell, containing a statue of a Jina, with a pyramidal roof, and connected with this is a closed hall. In front of the hall is an extensive open portico adorned with free standing columns. The temples display some of the finest examples of Jain sculpture, chiefly from the view-point of their exquisite delicacy of carving.2
Of other interesting Jain temples of the medieval period mention must be made of the shrines at Kumbharia in North Gujarat belonging to c. 12th and 13th centuries; the Digambara Kirtistambha at Chitor which was built in 1100 AD and repaired in 1450; the temples near Indore which were mostly built by later Paramāras of Malwa in the 11th and 12th centuries; the Kumarapala temples on the Taranga Hill. North Gujarat and at Jalor, about 80 miles south of Jodhpur; the temple at Sarotrā in north Gujarat which contains 52 cells in the courtyard; the Varavan shirine in the Thar district of Sindh; the
1EC, II, pp. 10-23, tr. 89 pl. I. 2Fergusson, HIEA, II, pp. 36-44.