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

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JAINISM AND KARNĀTAKA CULTURE
peculiarly Southern Gummața (as at Bādāmi) Fergusson concludes that the excavator must have brought the Dravidian style with them into the Deccan. He says, the Ellôrā group (i.c. the Deccan group) exhibits an extra-ordinary affinity with the southern style. They must have all been excavated by the Cālukyas and the Rāşhțrakūtas (7th to the 8th cent. A. D.) whose kingdoms extended from the Tungabhadra and Krşņa, in the South, to Ellôrā and Mālkhed in the North.169 The Bādāmi cave contains names of Digambara sādhus, and the figures are marked by the sacred-thread, seen also in the status of Indra at Ellôrā; on either side of the statue of Mahāvīra are chauri-bearers, śārdulas, makaras, etc. 170 The caves of Nāsik have cells and halls for the monks, and those at Yeola, in the same District, have small but richly carved doorways.171 Among the smaller caves of interest might be mentioned those of Ankai, in the Khāndêsh District. They are seven in all, and belong to about the Iith or 12th cent. A D. They are rich in sculpture, notable samples of which are the female dancing figures on petals bearing musical instruments. 172 That of Kulugumalai, in the Tinnevelly District, is a rock-cut temple which deserves mention also not for its size but for its elegance of details. The temple now used by the Saivas is described as “ a gem of its class." It too belongs to about the same period as the caves of Ankai. 173 These excavations are not copies of structural buildings but are “rock-cut examples, which had grown up into a style of their own, distinct from that of structural edifices." 174
Jaina art is to an overwhelming degree religious, and hence we find in it a certain lack of the purely aesthetic element
169 Ibid., pp. 20-22. 170 Burgess, A. 8. of W. I., Belgaum and Kaladgi Dists. (1874), pp. 25-6;
Cave Temples, p. 491. 171 Burgess and Cousens, Revised Lists of Antiquarian Romains in the
Bombay Presidency, VIII, pp. 46-9, 52. 173 Fergusson, op. cit., pp. 18-19; Bargess, Cave Temples, pp. 505-07. 173 Fergu88on, op. cit., p. 22; Burgess, op. cit., p. 169. 174 Fergusson, op. cit., p. 7.