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people. From his first queen Yashaswati, he had the eldest son Bharat and other sons and a daughter Brahmi and from the second queen Sunanda, the son Bahubali and a daughter Sundari. Daughters Brahmi and Sundari are said to have been educated by Rishabhadeva for imparting to the people the scriptology, and numerology and fine arts respectively.
Rishabhadeva, before becoming the Jain ascetic to attain nirvana, made Bharat the ruler of Ayodhya and Bahubali of Podanpur. The remaining sons were given other territories for independent rule.
Being the first Chakravarti emperor, Bharat had to move for conquests along with his great army and the Chakra, which was capable of killing opposing enemies. After returning from conquests the Chakra. which was at the forefront, did not enter Ayodhya also stopping the army to enter the capital. The reason ascribed to this was that brother Bahubali and the remaining brothers had not yet accepted Bharat's sovereignty and thus making the great conquest incomplete. Whereas the other brothers preferred to become ascetics and thus making possible their territories coming under control of Bharat, the mighty Bahubali chose to be in war with the elder brother to maintain his independence.
Great armies of the two brothers took positions against each other. However, on the sane advice of able and aged ministers, the war and unwanted bloodshed was avoided. Instead, the two brothers agreed to three different duals, drishti-yuddha, the fight of staring each other down, jala-yuddha, a fight in water and finally malla-yuddha, a wrestling bout, among themselves alone to determine the superiority over the other. By virtue of his being taller and stronger, Bahubali had a win over Bharat in all the duals. But having developed much respect for the elder brother and renunciation towards the world by them, he became a Jain ascetic inspite of strong persuasion by Bharat.
Bahubali did severe penance for over a year in the standing posture (Kayotsarga) for attaining nirvana. So much absorbed he was in meditation that the ants made chambers near his feet and creepers grew and entwined his legs and arms. This did not stir him at all. He, however, did not attain kewaljnan, which precedes nirvana, because of doubt flickering in his mind that he was standing on the land which belonged to Bharat and was thus like one of his subjects and secondly he caused humiliation to his elder brother in defeating him. On satisfactory explanation having been given by Bharat and the sisters to his doubts, Bahubali instantly attained kewal-jnan. He left the earthly body and attained nirvana even before his father Rishbhadeva and became the first mokshagami.
Jain sources tell that chivalrous Chaumundraya, able commander and minister of Ganga king Rachmalla IV, who ruled over Talkaddu in 10th century A.D., and his mother Kalala Devi having heard the story of Bahubali decided to get sculptored a colossus of great beauty of ascetic Bahubali at the summit of Dodda Batta, i.e. the Indragiri hill.
The grand statue was completed at great expenses and labour. The inscriptions in Kannada, Tamil and Marathi languages, in 10th century characters, on ant-chambers at the feet of the image, state that Gommateswara was caused by Chamundraya. It was consecrated on March 12, 981 A.D. by Chamundraya's preceptor, Sidhantachakravarti Nemichandra. Since, out of affection he used to call Chamundraya as Gommatta, i.e. the cupid, he named the colossus after his name as Gommateswara. It also means the handsome and the excellent deity, as Bahubali was considered very handsome-the cupid. By looking at the Gommateswara statue, it appears as if the spirit hidden in rocks for centuries suddenly revealed itself wholly and in all its greatness and simplicity." According to Shri T.K. Tukol, retired Justice of the Karnataka High Court, two American academicians sat and dazed at the monolith for nearly two hours as the religious background of the image was narrated to them.
The statue stands in Kayotsarga posture facing north. Selection of location by Chaumundraya is really excellent and unparallel in whole of Karnataka. When carved, it must have provided a splendid view to the viewers from far and near as there were no enclosures on the hill then. These were constructed later गोम्मटेश दिग्दर्शन
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