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MONUMENTS & SCULPTURE A.D. 1000 TO 1300
[PART V
philosopher, Sri-Rāmānuja or Yati-rāja and actually quotes a verse from Vedānta-Desika's Dhati-pañcaka.
The regions other than Tamil Nadu mainly expressed this early medieval art development in the form of carvings on the walls and niches of the shrine, subshrines and in the sanctum. But in Tamil Nadu an additional diversification in the form of the bronze-image tradition was available and gave rise to a wealth of minor images and ritual metallic outfit in the temples of the Jainas, much of which, however, was following a basic folk-art slant, perhaps under the influence of the west-Indian Jaina mural and miniature tradition, expressed in the rigid and ethnic facial moulds, stylization of the curls of the hair and protrusion and elongation of the eye-balls, e.g. bronzes from Venkunram (plate 216). The Andhra area was, however, devoid of the inetallic images. In the Hoysaļa regime and region, just prior to the foundation of the Vijayanagara empire in 1336, the Jainas had a field-day, thanks largely to the pre-existing and sustained Ganga support to Jainism carlier, and we find perhaps the largest concentration of Jaina art in the Districts of Hassan, Mandya and Mysore. Sravanabelgola in this period was indeed only a subsidiary centre jostling with the state-patronized Brāhmaṇism. The Jaina art of the Hoysala times was subdued but lively and contrasts with the somewhat still though richly picked-out ornamentation of the corresponding Brāhmaṇical iconographic art of the same period.
The Jaina art, further, specialized at this stage in the surface-shine and polish of the figures as in the case of pillars, also coeval, and in large-sized images of Tirthankaras in the sanctum. This eschewing of delicate carvings in figure-sculpture would seemingly underscore the deliberate attunement to the philosophic symbolism of the emancipated Tirtharkara by the figural execution. In fact, except for certain medium and small-sized sculptures of the religion, there is a systematization of the Tirthankara figures in all regions, particularly in south India, resulting in a studied uniformity of treatment everywhere, characterized by stark simplicity, a spirit of unconcern, as it were, for the admittedly sophisticated contemporary social and cultural environment, represented by a commanding immobility of a stance amidst the pulsating life-cycle around. It is important to note that, generally speaking, in both style and material, Jaina art was similar to the Brāhmanical traditional skill and convention. However, it did opt for a functional simplicity in both architecture and sculpture, although it tended sometimes to compensate this by overcrowded surface-friczes on the pillars and by cloyingly repetitive assemblages of Jinas, minor divinities, Yaksas, Yaksis, etc., on the walls, in
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