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Gommates vara Statues in Karnataka
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idol might have been installed by Somaiah and Punisamaiah who were officers in the court of Vişnuvardhana.
There is another Gommateśvara image of 10 feet height on a hill near Tippur in Maddur Taluk, Mandya district. This image is not endowed with any special features. There is inscriptional evidence to show that this place was a Jaina centre in the 8th century A. D.
We have another Gommateśvara statue made very recently. Sri Virendra Heggade, the religious head of the famous holy place Dharmasthaļa, has this statue made. The chief sculptor of this statue is eighty years old Sri Rañjāļa Gopala Shanoy. The chiselling of this statue began in 1967 and was completed in 1973. The total height of the material of the statue is 52 feet. Of this, 6 feet was to go into earth with a pedestal of 7 feet above the earth. The actual height of the statue from the feet upto the head is 39 feet. This statue was prepared in Karkala. M/s. Mangathram Brothers of Bombay transported this huge statue weighing 170 tonnes from Karkala to Dharmasthaļa. A special trolly with 64 tyres weighing 20 tonnes was constructed and with the help of two trucks and a bull-dozer of 80 H. P., the statue went up through one thousand feet height in Dharmasth!a to a place called Bahubali Vihāra. This statue has got some special features. Its curly hair descends down till the shouldes. On both the feet there are snakes climbing up. Along with the Mallika creepers all through the body, there are also some flowers. Beside the right and left feet mango trees, parrots, monkeys, beehives etc., are also carved on two separate stones.
Sri Gopāla Shanoy has chiselled one more huge statue of Gommateśvara at the instance of a devotee and is installed in North India. This statue from Karnataka, endowed with the talent and imagination of the sculptor, is permanently situated in North India.
Thus the Chiselling of Gommațeśvara statues has been a tradition for 12 Centuries in Karnataka contributing a significant feature to Indian sculpture.
It is really interesting to study the reasons for the installation of so many Gommateśvara statues in Karnataka. We may proceed in this way: In South India especially in Karnataka the Jainas belonged to Digambara sect. The worship of the Bahubali idol has a special significance in this tradition and this might be the reason for the installation of so many statues. Moreover the story of Bahubali which incorporates the battle fought between the two brothers Bhrata and Bahubali and Bāhubali's giving up of kingdom even after the victory, has enjoyed enough popularity as compared with the stories of the Tirtha:karas. This might also have contributed to an abundance of Bahubali-Gommateśvara idols in Karnataka.
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