Jain Siddhant Bhaskar

SR No.: 010062
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hiralal Jain, Others
Publisher: ZZZ Unknown
Publication Year: 1940
Total Pages: 143
Language: Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari
File Size: 7 MB

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146
THE JAINA ANTIQUARY.
[Vol. V
halting at Shravana-Belagula on his way to Paudanapura accompanied by his mother, and told him that Bahubali was pleased with his devotion and would manifest himself to him on the Larger Hill if he would discharge a golden arrow from the Smaller one towards the former. The next morning he heard of a similar dream of his mother. Acting up to it he saw the head of the Image when the discharged arrow struck the rock on the Larger Hill. Afterwards the officiating priest of the place placed a diamond chisel and struck it with a diamond hammer. The layers of stone fell off and the image became visible. This story based on such a miracle appears in Bhujabali-sataka of Doddayya (about 1550 A. D.) in Sansknt.
Gommateśvara-carite of Ananta-kavi (about 1780 A. D.), Rājāvalikathe of Devacandra (about 1838 A. D.), and the Sthalapurāna of Shravana-Belagula are other works in Kannada giving the story more or less in the strain of Bhujabali-sataka and Bhujabali-carite.
The Sthala-purāņa gives one important and interesting information about the height of the Image. It says that Cāvundarāya heard of the existence of an Image 18 bows high at Shravana-Belagula. This information may be verified with the actual measurements of the Image taken.
The pedestal is designed to represent an open lotus, and upon this the artist has worked a scale corresponding to three feet four inches. This scale when multiplied by 18 gives approximately (60 feet) the height of the Image. The Image as measured is 57 feet in height A bow is generally of four cubits length, and 18 bow-lengths will make 72 feet. This brings in a difference of 15 feet in the actual measurement, and 12 feet difference according to the Sthala-purana. But a cubit cannot always be of the same length. It will depend on the measurements of the sculptor who works at the Image. It may therefore be assumed that the scale viven at the pedestal represents a bow-length, and that the Image Poes 18 lengths with it. This assumption roughly solves the height problem in the present case.