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B. V. Shetti
Nirgrantha
The image (Plate 1), except for the head, is bejewelled with ear-rings, necklace, armlets, bracelets, rings for the fingers, also chest-band, anklets, etc. It is particularly noteworthy that he wears yajñopavīta. The hair is in knobbly curves, but there is no Buddha's typical uşnişa-lump on the top of the skull : it rather resembles the Jina head. The figure is sitted in padmāsana. Its right hand is raised in abhayamudrā; and it holds rosary. The left hand rests in the lap, palm upwards (dhyānamudrā). The figure is seated upon a lion-throne (siṁhāsana), the front of which is divided into three compartments, with a lion in each as in many pre-medieval and medieval Jina image-thrones in Karnataka. On either side of him is a male camara-bearer, each wearing a kirita-mukuta and other gemset ornaments, while behind him is the throne-back with the usual terminal vyāla and makara figures. Delineated as engraved line-drawing are here deer and sankha to the left and cakra to the right. At present the image has been spoiled due to continual application of oil by the worshippers. The halo behind the head is plain and further behind is the depiction of tree.
Beside it, on the rock, a little way to the right of the image, is carved a small bearded sage with a fat body, seated in padmāsana on a bhadrapītha. While his right hand is in abhayamudrā, the left hand seems to hold a vessel. On his right side is a long staff. Cousens identifies this image as that of a person who had the big one carved, or perhaps the rājā's prime minister. To me it appears to be the image of Agastya after whom the lake is named, because of the presence of sage's beard, fat body, and the water-vessel.
Annigeri, a second scholar who in recent years wrote on this image, feels that Kostharaya must have been a Treasury Officer connected with the Bādāmi fort who became an ascetic later on. And Carol Radcliffe Bolon remarks : "To me the date and identity of this image remain enigmatics."
The head of the main image, plain halo, legs in padmāsana, the left hand in dhyānamudrā, the throne-back decorated with makaras, and the two male câmarabearers are very similar to the Tirthankara carved in a tableaux in the Jaina cave at Aihole : (late 6th century; Plate 2). This indicates that the sculpture under discussion undoubtedly was carved by a sculptor who was accustomed to carving Jina images. All the same, the posture of legs and hands, the tree (which can be interpreted as the bodhi - tree) at the back, and the representation of deer on the throne-back conclusively prove that this is intended to be an image of Buddha. However, the profusion of ornaments and the engravings of sankha and cakra on the throne-back unambiguously indicate his association with Visnu. Considering the total evidence, it would be more correct to identify this image as that of "Māyāmoha" of the purānas* or "Buddhāvatāra Vişnu”.
On stylistic grounds, the sculpture can be dated to c. late 7th or plausibly the first quarter of the 8th century A.D.
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