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 49

APRIL, 1981
the figures of the two sisters. Furthermore, the Bahubali images showing the casual representations of the lion pedestals, small Jina figures, attendant flywhisk-bearers, garland-bearing celestial beings, the bhamandalas, umbrellas, surmounted in one example by a drumbeater, and the śrivatsa symbols, in all the figures, as pointed out earlier, bear witness to their affinity to the Jina images. And the minor variations, seen among these Northern images, can be explained as local influences, in a particular period and region, where the art and theory influenced each other. The point where the two major traditions agree is the presence of climbing plants entwining the legs and arms of Bahubali.
Postscript
159
During his recent visit to the prolific Digambara Jaina site at Deogarh the author came to notice six representations of Bahubali, two of which have already been illustrated by Klaus Bruhn. None of the other four figures, to the best of the author's knowledge, has ever been illustrated before. Two tiny figures represent Bahubali as standing in kayotsargamudra with rising creepers winding round his arms and legs. One of the tiny figures is carved on a pillar of the porch of the Temple No. 12 and another is at the right end of the door-lintel of the Temple No. 19. The former figure of Bahubali is attended on the left by a female cauribearer, while the corresponding female on the right holds a kalasa. The other three unpublished figures are significant since they follow a homogeneous formula of the Jina representation, in effect throughout the country during the early mediaeval period and onwards. The occurrence of such a close similarity in the rendering of the two strengthens the author's view that at least in the Digambara community, as is evident from the sculptures, Bahubali was accorded a status equal to that of the Jinas. Of the three images, two are enshrined in the Temple No. 2 and one in the Temple No. 11.
One of the two images (27" x 15") installed in the Temple No. 2 shows Bahubali as standing nude in kayotsarga-mudra on a simhasana with two devotees sitting at his feet and two camaradhara attendants flanking him (fig. 8). Bahubali is endowed with a triple parasol topped by a prostrate figure bearing a drum and two hovering mälädharas carved at the sides. Both the legs of Bahubali are entwined by a climbing plant; and his arms support two snakes. The figures of lizards, snakes and scorpions are also carved creeping on the legs in the intervening space free from creepers. Bahubali wears the śrivatsa symbol on his chest and has his hair done in curls with a small top-knot. At left of