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 151

CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITERATURE, ETC.
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architecture and are consequently built in gradually receding storeys, each of which is ornamented with small simulated cells. No curvilinear sikhara, such as is universal with the Northern Jainas, occurs among them, and their general external appearance is more ornamental than that of the generality of Northern Jaina temples.144 Quite in contrast with these are the bastis of Mūḍbidrê.
The external plainness of the Jaina temples of South Kanara gives no clue to the character of their interiors. In the words of Fergusson, "Nothing can exceed the richness or the variety with which they are carved. No two pillars are alike, and many are ornamented to an extent that may almost seem fantastic. Their massiveness and richness of carving bear evidence to their being copies of wooden models."145
This last observation is fully confirmed by an inscription in Coorg, above the Ghats, which definitely speaks of a basadi made of wood to serve as a model for another to be later on constructed in stone. Its estimated cost was 330 honnu.148 The wooden model must easily have been dispensed with in cases of material which was as tractable as wood. For instance, at Bārkur, Buchanan observed a basti, built by the Wodeyars, about which he remarks, The workmanship of the pillars and carving is superior to anything that I have seen in India, probably owing to the nature of the stone, which cuts better than the granite in common use, and preserves its angles better than the common pot-stone, of which many temples are constructed." 147 The variety of material used for temple building, naturally varied with the locality. There is a Jaina temple in Belgaum with pillars of black Belgaum porphyry which is said to take a high polish and is strongly magnetic.148 At Ellôra, in one of
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144 Cf. Fergusson, op. cit. I, p. 172, ibid. II, p. 74.
145 Ibid., pp. 78-9; Sturrock, op. cit., p. 85.
146 Cf. Rice, Coorg Inscriptions, Ep. Car. I, 10, p. 56.
147 Buchanan, op. cit., III, pp. 132-33.
148 Cf. Belgaum, Bom. Gaz. XXI, p. 540.
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