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Gommatesvara Commemoration Volume
Father' or 'Hill Sage', obviously alluding to its association with the sages Bhadrabāhu and Candragupta."
The name Belgoļa (white lake) or Sravana Be!gola, 'the white lake of the Jaina Ascetics', is also at least as old as the 6th or 7th century A.D." In some records, it has been called as the Dhavala-Sarovara Nagara' (the town of the white lake). The present Kalyāṇi tank in the centre of the town is supposed to mark the site of the original 'white lake' on the banks of which numerous Jaina ascetics used to practise penance. During the last two thousand years, the two hills, the town and even the neighbourhood have been adorned with numerous temples and other religious monuments. Not all of them have survived, but of those that remain several are quite beautiful and artistic. Since the consecration of the Gommateśa here, the place certainly acquired great celebrity and became world famous. It also came to be known by such names as Gommațapura, Gommața-tirtha or the city of Gommaţadeva'. Historical and traditional associations - association with saints, sages and ascetic yogis, with learned men, scholars and poets, with lay devotees of different classes and ranks, and with pious pilgrims from far and off places, gave a distinct character and significance to Sravanabelgoļa Culture. The Bhattāraka-svāmijis of the local Pitha have also, during the last one thousand years or so, contributed a lot in sustaining and maintaining this culture.
The distinctive iconographical details of the Bahubali image had already been well established long before its installation at Sravanabe!go!a. Several such images, dating from the 6th to 10th century A. D., have been discovered in different places in the North and South, such as at Badami, Ellora, Khajuraho, and Devagarh. But the age of Gommața colossi commenced only with the one at Sravanabe!go!a. Not only this, a regular Gommața-cult with its distinct ritual and folklore has developed in the course of time.
The Builder : The erection and consecration of the Bahubali colossus is rightly ascribed to the great Camu darāya, a highly celebrated name in the Jaina annals of South India. He came out of a noble Brahma-Kşatriya family of Karnataka and was the General-in-Chief as well as Prime Minister of the kingdom of the Western Gangas of Talkad, during the reigns at least of Mārsimha II (961-974 A. D.) and Rācamalla IV (975-984 A. D.). He seems to have entered the service of this kingdom in the reign of Mārsimha's predecessor, Maru?adeva (953-961 A. D.), and may have continued for some time in the reign of Rācamalla's successor, Rakkasa Gaiga. But, almost all of his numerous military exploits, heroic deeds and political, social and moral or religious achievements, which won for him dozens of befitting titles and honours, and about which contemporary and later records, literary and epigraphical, are so eloquent, are confined chiefly to the first mentioned two reigns, i. e., the period 961-984 A. D.
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