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ANTIQUITY OF BAHUBALI AND HIS MONUMENT AT ŚRAVANABEĻGOĻA
BHAGACHANDRA JAIN
The colossus of Bhagavān Bahubali is the best and the most important ancient monument in the field of Indian iconography. Lord Bāhubali as we know, was one of the beloved sons of Tirthaņkara Rşabhanātha, the son of the last Kulakara Nābhirāya. He was married to Yašasvati (Sunandā) and Sumangalā in a newly established manner which was not adopted earlier. Yašasvati gave birth to Bharata and Brāhmi and Suma igalā to Bahubali and Sundari. It is said that 98 more sons were born from Sumangala.' According to Jinasena, the total number of sons were 101 adding the name of Rşabhasena."
Lord Rşabhadeva distributed his kingdom among the princes. Out of them Bharata, the eldest son became the sovereign of Ayodhyā and Bāhubali was given Podanapura. We do not find any other detailed description as to which provinces were allotted to other sons. The names of provinces have been generally mentioned in the Purāņas.
Later Bharata started all efforts to fulfil his ambition to be a Cakravarti. He was finally opposed by Bāhubali and consequently the war between them became inevitable to determine as to who was more powerful On declaration of war, the leaders of both the sides thought that the war would cause destruction and misery to both the parties. Hence, it had to be avoided at any cost. Bharata and Bāhubali were persuaded by the elders to avoid bloodshed and restrict the conflict to both of them only. The duel was restricted to: dr$fi-yuddha (staring constantly at each other till one of them is exhausted), jala-yuddha (splashing of water) and malla-yuddha (wrestling). At last Bharata could not meet the challenge and was defeated by Bahubali. Bharata was frustrated and provoked so much that he hurled the Cakra on Bahubali. But it could not hurt him at all.
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