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BAHUBALI COLOSSI
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Sravana Belgola, first came to be popularly called by the name
Gommata' etc. (or Gommatesvara' etc); and when in course of time, similar colossi were installed at Karkala and Venur, they also were called alike after their great archetype at Sravana Belgola. Therefore it will suffice for our purpose to enquire only the reasons why the original colossus at Sravana Belgola came to be so called.
Elsewhere! I have tried to prove that the installation of the Sravana Belgola colossus by Camunda Raya must have taken place in 981 A.C. It is a settled fact that Camunda Raya could not have installed it before 978 A.c; for had it been installed before that date, he would never have failed to mention the fact in the narration of his various deeds (and the enumeration of his various titles he secured thereby), which he has so faithfully recounted in his great Kanarese prose work, the “ Trisasti-lakshanamahapurana," ntherwise called as the "Camunda-raya-purana" after himself. This work, as recorded in itself, was finished on the 18th of February, 978 A.C. No less settled is the fact that the colossus had been installed before 993 A.C., as the great Kanarese poet 'Ratna' or 'Ranna' refers in his Kanarese poem · Ajita-tirthankara-purana-tilaka' (or “Ajita-purana'), which he finished in October, 993 A.C., to a pilgrimage made by his patroness 'Attimabbe' to the 'Jinesvara' (known as) the lofty Kukkutesvara '? (Ajita-purana, I, 61) which is none other than the Gommatesvara colossus of Bahubali at Sravana Belgola. This reference in the 'Ajita-purana' of Ranna is of great importance in that the poet, who was himself a protege of Camunda Raya
1. See the Kanarose monthly journal, the 'Karnataka Kesari' of Puttur (South Kanara), vol. I, August and September, 1927.
2. That the Sravana Belgola colossus is known both as "Kukkutesvara' and 'Daksina Kukkutesvara' (Kukkutesvars of the South) is amply borne out by the following insoriptions at Sravana Bolgail ('Epigraphia Carnatica', vol. II, Revised Ed.):
(1) No. 234 (circa 1183 A.C.) (3) No. 335 (1195 A.C.) (4) No. 349 (1159 A.C.) (5) No. 397 (1118 A.C.)
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
