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No. IV 1
JAINA ART IN SOUTH INDIA
83
JAIN ART IN SOUTH INDIA (By Prof. Shripad Rama Sharma, M.A.) [Continued from page 62.]
Yet Ellora forms one of a group; there are others, more ancient, further South. "When Buddhism was tottering to a fall," observes Burgess, "the Jainas timidly at first in Dharwar and the Dekkhan, and boldly afterwards at Elura, asserted themselves as co-heirs to the Buddhists, with the Brahmins."1 The caves at Ellora, being thus of later date, are supposed to represent a decadent age in Jaina sculpture. The rock-cut style was only a passing episode in their architectural history and was dropped by the Jainas when it was no longer wanted. It has had no permanent effect upon their own peculiar style. Notwithstanding this, however, the architects who excavated the two Sabhas at Elūra," says Burgess," deserve a prominent place among those, who, regardless of all utilitarian,considerations, sought to convert the living rock into quasi-eternal temples in honour of their gods." There are similar excavations in the Deccan at Badami, Aihole, Dharasinva, Ankai, Patany, Nasik and Junagad, as well as in the far South of Kulumulu or Kalugumalai in the Tinnavelly District. The caves at Dharasinva (37 miles n. of Solapur) are, perhaps the largest of these. The halls here are of considerable size, being 80 ft. deep and 79-85 ft across, with eight cells in each of the side walls and six in the back, besides the shrine. In one is an image of Parsvanatha with a seven-hooded serpent above him, seated on a throne, in jnana-mudra. Hanging from the east is a carved representation of rich drapery. In front of it was a wheel set edge-wise, with antelopes at each side. Then there are sardulas, and other nondescript monsters as well. That at Aihole is two-storeyed with a number of halls attached as at Ellora. From their appearance, as well as the presence of the peculiarly Southern Gummata (as at Badami) Fergusson concludes that the excavators must have
1. Burgess, op. cit., p. 510.
2. Ibid., pp. 511-12; cf. his Report on the Cave Temples in Western India, p. 44, f.
3. Ibid., pp. 503-04; Fergusson, op. cit., pp. 18-19.
