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CONTRIBUTIONS TO LITÉRATURE, Etc.
toz
uttama-daśa-tala measure, whereas those of the dévatas and the twenty-four Tirthankaras surrounding him in the other (madhyama and adhama) daśatala measures. The body should be perfectly free from ornaments, but on the right side of the chest (a little over the nipple) there should be the Śri-vatsa mark of golden colour.
On the right and left side of the gate of the temple of Jina, there should be the dwārapālakas named Canda and Mahā - Canda respectively.'116
It becomes clear from this extract that there was a regular system of sculpture and architecture to which the workers were expected strictly to conform. The excessive deference to ritual prescription, generally recognised as a defect in Hindu art, as Smith obseryes, is carried to such an extremity by the Jainas, that images differing in age by a thousand years are almost undistinguishable in style. The uniformity which runs through the centuries extends all over India, so that little difference between Northern and Southern productions is noticeable, and the genius of individual artists finds small scope for its display.117 The best illustrations of this remark are undoubtedly the three wellknown colossi of Karnāțaka, viz. the statues of Gommatesvara or Bahubali at Śravaņa Belgoļa, Kārkaļa, and Yêņür or Vènür. The last one is the smallest of the three ( 35 ft. high ) and the first the biggest, rising to a height of 561 ft. All the three are carved, each out of a single block of gneiss, giving expression to the same ascetic ideal in the self-same manner, with the exception of the dimples in the cheeks of the Yêņūr colossus expressing 'a deep, grave smile.' They date respectively from about 983 A. D., 1432 A. D., and 1604 A.D.118 All are set on heights of more or less prominence, visible from a considerable distance around; and, despite their formalism,
116 Mänasara ch. 55; cf. Gopinathrao, Travancore II, pp. 118-19. 117 Smith, History of Fine Art in India, pp. 267-68. 118 Cf. Hultzsch, Jain Colossi in South India, Ep. Ind. VII, pp. 108-12
Ep. Car II, Introd., p. 16.
