Jignasa Journal Of History Of Ideas And Culture Part 02

Author(s): Vibha Upadhyaya and Others
Publisher: University of Rajasthan

Page 86

302 / Jijnäsä
temples. As a contested ground on sexual morality, on the other hand temple was enmeshed also as a space of visible feminine masquerade of show of political power, where an act of female worship of an object or a deity, could also be read as desired feminine trait by the way of visible religiosity by an elite woman's religious participation. A case in point could be the participation of Rudraņi who was Vākpati's mother and belonged to the family of Chauhan feudatories of the Imperial Pratihāras, who had built many splendid religious structures in North India, and one Śiva temple amongst them was built by Vakpati and Simharaja on the Puskara lake, and it is recorded that Rudrāṇī, lit daily a thousand lamps before the lingams installed there, which speaks of the immense faith practiced therein.54
Some allied regional insights about the temple life with respect to the formation of the feminine spaces within the spatiality of the temple can further be tangibly attested by the following examples: firstly the Vasantgarh inscription of Varmalata, of seventh century AD from Sirohi District, of the göṣṭhi or association which built the temple, mentions of one Büța, the only woman member who is a courtesan, attached to the temple,55 the other members were Pratihāra Bōṭaka and rajasthäniya or the viceroy Adityabhața; and secondly, an eleventh century AD iascription from Desuri District in Jodhpur in Sanskrit prose refers to the reign of Jöjaladevi. 56 The inscription in form of an order from the king, with regards to the management of festivals in connection with the contemporary deities worshipped, orders that whenever a festival in connection of any particular deity commences, the courtesans attached to the temples of other deities, must also participate, by putting on their ornaments and best garments, and be in attendance with their sulapala (the keeper associate of the courtesans, who accompanied them on musical instruments while singing or dancing) to celebrate it by accompaniment of instrumental music and dancing. The king, further, was desirous of maintaining this practice and warns his descendants, about discontinuing or abolishing it. The inscription ends with the curse on those princes unable to maintain this practice. Thus, not only the practice of attaching woman for service in temples was continued from earlier, but in case of failing to maintain the tradition, were cursed and also warned against the lack of individual attention and stressed upon the need for its continuity. Al-Beiruni had observed that the kings made devadāsīs "an attraction for their cities, a bait of pleasure for their subjects, for no other but financial reasons." Thus the physical attraction.' commercial or otherwise notwithstanding amidst the pursuit of salvation, the ritual of dance continued to hold the male gaze, sharpening if not crystallizing the feminine persona at the altar of divine.
A general understanding on the sculptural traditions informs that the period between AD 800 - 1000 was of continuity of the Gupta period, with the main difference being that they were now small in size, unusual in elaboration and intricate in carvings, but with local variations, which were visible at Osian, Ābāneri, Bāḍoli, Alwar, Udaipur etc. 58 The Chahamānas or the Chauhanas (in the eleventh and the twelfth century) of the Sakambhari and Nadḍula (Nadola) were an important political force in northern India and the sculptural style they initiated is considered to be of having innate maturity of the ornamentation, decoration and iconographic elements of the medieval phase of the artistic traditions. Their Brahamana and Jaina sculptures have been found in Ajmer, Nadola (District Pälī), Lāḍanūn (District Nagaur) and Bijoliyā (in Mewar). The representations of the feminine form are attested by the images of Lakṣmi-Nārāyaṇa, Uma Maheśvara, the mātṛikās, Parvati, Mahiṣāsuramardini etc. The Svetambara Jaina temples at Nadola of eleventh and twelfth century have the various depiction of the feminine apart from the female-dikpaliyons, also the yakṣis as Ambikā, and the mahāvidhyās as Vajránkalā, Gauri, Vajraśṛikhalā. Apraticakrā. Mahäkäli and Kali, and the goddesses of Gajalakṣmi and the Sarasvati.60