Jain Journal 1981 04

SR No.: 520062
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1981
Total Pages: 79
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 6 MB

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APRIL, 1981
boulder near Samnarkoyil, Annamalai in Tamil Nadu.20 The later caves at Mangi Tungi and Ankai Tankai in Maharashtra are also said to contain sculptures of Bahubali.
The Aihole Jaina cave shows the nude Bahubali meditating in the kayotsarga mudra, with creepers entwining his hands and feet and snakes raising their hoods from ant-hills near the feet. At his sides stand Brahmi and Sundari dressed like princesses and wearing crowns and ornaments. The whole upper part of the relief panel is covered with trees and the flying figures of Gandharvas paying homage to Bahubali who just obtained kevala-jñāna. Bahubali wears a jata, the hair is dressed in locks arranged across the head in almost parallel lines, and the locks fall on the shoulders. The face is slightly oval and full, the eyes are halfopen. The figure is well-modelled, especially above the legs. The shoulders are rounded but a certain stiffness is evident here as well as in the figures of Brahmi and Sundari. The relief dates from c. 7th century A.D.
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Images of Bahubali are not so common in North India, though a few mediaeval images are recovered from the territory of the old Gwalior State, now in Madhya Pradesh, and from sites like Deogadh and Khajuraho.
U. P. Shah has published a figure of Bahubali standing in a niche of a Jaina temple at Khajuraho.21 This relief sculpture is noteworthy since it is one of the few known early sculptures of Bahubali from regions to the north of the Vindhyas and secondly because it has a few additional features. Firstly here Bahubali is shown standing on a simhasana. Secondly, by the side of Brahmi and Sundari we get one more female attendant on each side. Thirdly, Bahubali is here being lustrated by two elephants, standing on two sides of the head and halo. The sculptures dates from c. 11th century A.D.
Old sculptures of Bahubali, of the Digambara tradition, are rare in Gujarat, since for a long time after the defeat of Kumudacandra by Vadi Deva Suri in the Calukyan court at Patan, the Digambara population has been on the decline in Gujarat. But fortunately a partly defaced but originally beautiful sculpture has been recovered from Prabhas
20 Also see, Shah, U.P., 'Bahubali, A Unique Bronze in the Museum', Bulletin of the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, 1953-54, no 4., pp. 32 ff.
For a photograph, see Shah, U.P., 'A Miniature Painting of Bahubali', Prachya Pratibha, vol III. no. 1, (January, 1975), fig. 5.
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