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Jaina Art in Karnataka : Some Examples
137
Buddhism, managed to retain its hold over a fair section of its adherents. The Jaina bhattārakas, religious heads of the community, played a pivotal role in providing stability and security to their followers during those troubled times. Gradually, the bhajtāraka mathas, the religious establishments of the bhaffärakas, became focal points for all religious and social activities of the Jainas.
The religious activities of the Jainas in Karnataka continued, but in a low key. In those inimical times it was perhaps not advisable to build temples, but it was possible to commission metal icons and votive tablets for enriching the existing temples. It was perhaps this reason that influenced the design of the metal images executed after the tenth century A. D. For, they begin to be conceived like shrines with architectural elements figuring prominently in their design. In addition to donating images to the temple it was customary to make offerings of manuscripts to the temple or to a religious personage. These gifts were usually stored on the temple premises.
It is against this historical religious and social background that we shall discuss some metal images and illustrated manuscripts from Karnataka (Plates 1 to 9 following P. 140) and analyse their stylistic implications:
1. A Metal Image of Tirthankara,
c. 10th century, Karnataka :
This image approximately 34 centimetres high stands in the khadga sana or the sword-stance of the kāyotsarga position. This yogic pose, assumed by Jaina ascetics, signifies complete control over the body where it needs no sustenance nor requires to perform any bodily functions.
Because of the excessive deference to rules and prescribed formulae in the casting of metal images among the Jainas, such icons, with their rigid pose and no accessories, tend to be very uniform in style and rather dull aesthetically. But this particular image with its elegant proportions, flowing lines and serenely contemplative facial features is a beautiful piece. It appears to have been executed during the Ganga period, sometime in the tenth century. A comparison with another superb figure, the one commissioned by the sister of the Ganga king, Mārasimha II (A. D. 961-974), unearthed in a coffee plantation and now in the collection of the Sravana Belgoļa Jaina Matha, reveals that though the two figures are coeval they represent slightly different, but cognate idioms.
The pedestal of this image is both anachronistic and anomalous and appears to represent repairs carried out at a late, but not too late, date.
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