Jaina Gazette 1928

SR No.: 034890
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Ajitprasad, C S Mallinath
Publisher: Jaina Gazettee Office
Publication Year: 1928
Total Pages: 502
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 33 MB

Page 408

BAHUBALI COLOSSI
239 colossus (1432 A.C.) has this 'Let it grant you every wish--the beautiful and holy image of the Lord Jina, named Gummata, which was caused to be made with great delight by the glorious king Pandya Raja, the son of Bhairavendra, who was praised by the wise.'
The left side of the Venur colossus (1603 a.c.) reads thus 'Timma, the chief among kings, who was ruling over the kingdom of Punjalike, consecrated the image of the blessed Jina, called Gummatesa, the son of Adi Jina (i.e., the first Thirthankara, Sri Rsabhanatha)'.
The fact, that the instailers of the Karkala and Venur colossi have preferred to preserve the old name 'Gummata' intact, proves that the said name 'Gommata' (or 'Gummata) of the original colossus at Sravana Belgola could never have been derived from that of its installer.
These reasons constrain me to discountenance the theory or the wide-spread belief that it was Camunda Raya himself, who was the original possessor of the name or the title 'Gommata', and it was from him that the name was transferred and applied second-hand to the colossus by reason of its being installed by him. I therefore conclude that it was the Sravana Belgola colossus itself that first came to be popularly called and widely known as 'Gommata,' by virtue of the fact that it was the image of Bahubali, who again, in the fitness of things, was called 'Gommata', and that Nemicandra gave this new name 'Gommata' (or 'Gommata Raya') to his disciple Camunda Raya, for his having installed it. Now what does 'Gommata' mean?
In the Prakrtamanjari of Katyayana, the rule governing the change that the double sound 'nm' undergoes is laid down as 'nmo mah' (III, 42), 1 wherefore the Sanskrit word 'Manmatha', meaning 'cupid', becomes 'Gammaha' in Prakrit.
(1) The sounds of the dental class, when final in a Sanskrit word, change into cerebrals in Kanarese 2-e.g., S. Granthi (a knot) = K. 'Ganti' (or Gantu ); S. Sraddha (confidence, trust, faith) K. Sadde; S. tana (in music) = K. tana; S. pattana (a city) K. pattana: S. 'patha' (path) = K. 'batte' etc.; therefore
1 Nirnayasagara Press edition, p 41. 2 See below.
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