Nirgrantha-2

Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research Centre

Page 89

H. Sarkar
Nirgrantha
also, and here one finds rock shelters of the type common in the Coromondal coastal area. On the Guru-Bhatakonda (Gurubhakta hill), about a kilometer away from Rāmatīrtham proper, a large boulder of overhanging rock forms a natural cave. A seated figure of Tirthankara is carved on a slab, now broken into two pieces. Rea identifies it as the ninth Tirthankara Suvidhinatha or Puspadanta, because of the presence of makara carved on the pedestal13. It is said that Gunaga Vijayaditya, the ruler of Vengi, was for some time a feudatory of the Răstrakuta monarch Amoghavarṣa (814-878) and Jainism had received a strong fillip under his patronage. He treated all creeds with equal respect and he imbibed in himself what was best in Brahmanism and Jainism. Be that as may have been, apart from Jina figures standing in the käyotsarga pose, one of them being Pārśvanatha with the snake-hood over the head, there are seated Tirthankara images of Rṛṣabhanatha with bull as the insignia on the pedestal, next Padmaprabha and others. Most probably the Jaina establishment at Râmatirtham originally had the figures of all
the 24 Tirthankaras.
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Many Jaina sites in the coastal tracts were situated close to the deserted Buddhist establishments. Mutilated or discarded figures of Tirthankaras have been seen at Amaravati, Gudivada, Bäptlä, Nägärjunakonda, Tenāli, Dharmavaram, and so forth. On the Nagarjunakonda hill there are two Jaina temples, the superstructures of which are now lost. Built of dry stone masonry they may be dated to circa the 14th century. Two mutilated figures of Tirthankaras in black stone are also ascribable to the same period. One of the temples has a pedestal bearing the figures of two stylized lions, flanking a leonine figure; perhaps the pedestal belonged to Vardhamana.
Simultaneously, with the introduction of stone sculptures and Jaina shrines, one finds the use of metal sculptures as is attested by the discovery of hoards at Băptla, in District Guntur, and Mediconda in District Mehboonagar. U.P. Shah has published photographs of several of the metal images including those from Lingasoor (Lingasür) in District Raichur. One of the bronzes from Lingasoor (no. 16 of Shah), has been dated by him to the sixth century; however, it will be safer to date it to the ninth on stylistic considerations. Shah dates some of the Bāpṭlā images (his nos. 17-19) to the seventh or eighth century though they may in reality be ascribed to the tenth. Most of the Mediconḍa images (nos. 23, 3132, 45, 47-51 of Shah) are ascribable to the 12th century. The image from Buddhapada, also published by Shah (his no. 62), is an example of the tenth or the 11th century. An interesting feature of these bronzes is their affinity with a strain of the northern tradition.
One notices the same northern features in the rock carvings (Plate 5 and 6) from Hanamkonda (Anamkonda) in District Warangal. These rock-cut Tirthankara figures may be dated to the 11th century and may have come into existence during the Later Calukyan rule over the Warangal area. Kulpak, ancient Kollipäkkai, which