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SVASTI – Essays in Honour of Prof. Hampa Nagarajaiah
According to the Digambaras, Bāhubali, not accepting subordination under his elder brother, decided to fight with Bharata. In a triple duel, the brothers fought by staring at each other, by splashing water at each other until one would fall, and by wrestling. Bāhubali, the one with the strong arms, was victorious in all three parts of the duel. In blind rage Bharata threw his cakra at Bāhubali. But this sharp miraculous weapon does not kill relatives, hence it flew around Bahubali three times and returned to its master. Bāhubali then lifted up his brother; but then he realized that he wanted to harm his brother out of desire for worldly power. He gently put down his brother and decided to devote the remainder of his life to meditation and asceticism. In this way Bāhubali had lost almost all his karma. But his knowledge was still limited on account of his ego. When Bharata humbly came to him and explained this to him, Bahubali also lost his remaining karma and attained omniscience.
The Mahāmastakābhișeka Mahāmastakābhiseka literally means "the great anointing of the head". This refers to the common Indian ritual practice of pouring various fragrant and valuable substances over a statue (mūrti) in an act of worship. An abhiseka, in its most simple form using only water (jalābhiseka), is regularly performed to the small festive statue (utsavamūrti) of Bāhubali. As in the case of all very large and unmovable mürtis, there is also a so-called utsavamürti for Bāhubali in Shravana Belagola, a miniature version of the large figure that also carries the presence of the great mūrti in itself and is carried around in processions and worshipped in stead of the large one. With the help of this small version, Bāhubali is ritually worshipped every day. Only during the Mahāmastakābhiseka is the large image of Bāhubali the object of the complete anointing ritual.
The history of the festival The installation of Bāhubali on the large hill on March 13th, 981" was at the same time the first Mahāmastakābhiseka. The base of the ritual is the pañcāmrtābhiseka, the anointing with five nectars, i.e.. milk, curds, clarified butter, saffron water and water. Because of the various complications involved, the Mahāmastakābhiseka has always been performed once every 10 to 15 years and partly also at larger intervals (in any case historical records are not found). As a rule, it is performed once every 12 years. The last time, Shravana Belagola organized the big celebration in 2006, that is to say, 13 years after the previous Mahāmastakābhiseka. The first inscriptional record is from the year 1398, when the ritual had already been performed seven times. The dates for the performance of a Mahāmastakābhiseka are determined according to
17 Sangave, p. 79. 18 Sangave, p. 94. 19 Further Mahāmastakābhisekas have been reported for the years 1612, 1677, 1800, 1825, 1827, 1871, 1887, 1900, 1925, 1940, 1953, 1967, 1981 and 1993. Sangave, p. 97f.
