ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 01

Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies

Page 274

beauty of his subject. The eyebrow can be shaped like a crescent moon and can be elegant and smooth as the arch of a bow; his eyes may parallel the lines of a kayal fish or a spearhead or the shy glance of a doe; his nose can be shaped like a flower gracefully ending with a deep fold. The upper lip should have an edge and three curves, the lower lip shaped like a half moon. The ear resembles a conch in shape.
The exception to Jaina iconography while being in perfect correspondence" with it, is the figure of Bahubali or Gommatteśvara. He is no tīrthamkara in the conventional sense and yet all Jainas revere him as the unique son of the first Tirthamkara Rşabhanātha. He too renounced the world to find himself. He is one of the most visible of icons within the dynamic repertoire of Jaina sculptures. The colossal statue of Bāhubali in Shravanbelgola, Karnataka, stands 21 m. high on top of a hill, carved out of a single boulder of granite a thousand years ago.
Jaina art, and specifically Jaina sculpture relates the microcosm of the Tirthamkara icon at its center to the glorious macrocosm of the faith at large among the laity at the circumference. This phenomena is symbolized in myriad ways: the sculptured magnificence of the Udaygiri, Khandagiri, Ajanta, Ellora and Badami caves; the temples of Mt. Abu, Ranakpur and Khajuraho; the victory pillar in Chitor; temple cities like that of Palitana in Saurashtra. All this and more, symbolically comprise the Jaina 'universe' that Mahāvīra chose to address in the state of his supreme knowledge, his kevala-jñāna. Such a 'universe in all its multiplicity as well as unity, is the subject of Jaina art and sculpture. "The main achievements of this age" observes Jose Pereira in Monolithic Jinas, "are noniconographical."
STUDY NOTES version 5.0
Page 261 of 317