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

Page 25

APRIL, 1981
A sculpture, preserved in a cell near the great temple of Adinatha at Mt. Satrunjaya, represents Bahubali standing in meditation, with legs entwined by creepers and with Brahmi and Sundari on either side. The sculpture, according to an inscription on the pedestal, was installed in 1391 V.S.=1234 A.D. It may be noted that both at Abu and Satrunjaya, Bahubali is shown wearing a dhoti. Sculptures of Bahubali from Svetambara shrines are very rare. Since Bahubali has to be represented naked in view of his rigorous austerities, and the Svetambaras, on account of the growing bitterness between the two sects regarding the form of the Jina image could not reconcile themselves to the worship of a nude image, the practice of installing sculptures of Bahubali did not receive encouragement amongst members of the Svetambara sect who do not install and worship nude Tirthankara images.
139
Miniature paintings depicting the story of Bahubali and Bharata are very rare. One interesting scene is depicted on folio 60 of the Kalpa Sutra manuscript, painted at Jaunpur in Samvat 1522 and now preserved in Muni Hansavijaya collection, Jnana Mandir, Baroda. It is published in Jaina Citrakalpadruma, vol. I, fig. 181. The miniature is divided into four panels. In the uppermost, Bharata and Bahubali are engaged in dṛṣṭi-yuddha and vāk-yuddha, in the second, in muşți-yuddha and dandayuddha. In the third panel, in the first section, Bharata facing Bahubali, holds the cakra in one hand, while in the second section, Bahubali is shown with his crown falling off. According to Jaina belief, the cakraratna is unable to kill a kinsman of the Cakravartin. In the last panel, Bahubali, wearing white dhoti, stands in meditation. A tree is shown on each side, snakes entwine his hands from the ant-hill below his feet, and birds perch on his shoulders. The two Jaina nuns, Brahmi and Sundari, represented on the left, appeal to him with folded hands. In this miniature, both Bharata and Bahubali are of golden complexion.
A wooden painted book-cover of a palm-leaf manuscript depicts the fight between Bharata and Bahubali followed by the scene of renunciation and penance of Bahubali. Motichandra has published this in his Jaina Miniature Paintings from Western India, figs. 199-200. Here Bahubali wears a lower garment unlike to Digambara reliefs noted above, since the paṭṭika belonged to the Svetambara tradition and is reported to have originally come from the Jaina Bhandara at Jesalmer. This is now preserved in the collections of Sri Haridasa Swali who is reported to have purchased it from Sri Sarabhai M. Nawab.
An exceptionally interesting and rare specimen of a miniature of Bahubali comes from the Kalpa Sutra manuscript of the Devsanapada