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THE FOURTEEN-FOLD PATH TO FREEDOM
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The rock was therefore given the name The Key Indus Rock of Karnataka. Such a valuable monument of human civilization is now being neglected, but that was very different 2500 years ago - one and a half centuries before the arrival of Emperor Chandragupta. This inscription in the Indus script thus contains three symbolic signs and a pictograph meant for Jain śramanas (ascetics) as guidance for the last moments of their lives. The same form of art was used to scratch the Indus signs into the granite rocks and told the life history of private monks. It was used at the beginning of the period in which humans learned to master the art of writing. From the viewpoint of art history we may regard this as the first phase, which came into being when writing implements were still nonexistent, but the desire to write was already strongly felt. The signs were merely used for religious purposes. In those days one was able to cut rough pillars, but no artistic refinement was possible in this hard stone. Climbing the rocks can not have been easy for the ascetics who lived in caves either, and once every two or three days they went down to collect food. In this manner the monks could live their austere lives away from the buzz of the world. The Greek Megasthenes, who followed the route of Alexander the Great in these days but went much further South than Alexander himself, kept a detailed diary of his observations. In his Indika he wrote in detail about their life and how they used to come down from the hills to the social world, and how the people had great respect for them and invited them into their homes to give them food. The only food the ascetics would accept was rice water. Various engraved markings in Indus style on the rocky surfaces of the Vindhyagiri in Śravana Belagola show that the rock had the function of a temple long before Bahabadru, the spiritual teacher of Emperor Chandragupta, arrived there.
On the bare rocks one sees large markings intended pilgrims pointing the way to the sacred shrines and locations on the rocks (photos 11 and 12). So both hills in Śravana Belagola show in fact a temple-like form of Indus art, with
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