A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s9: Section IX. Mediaeval Jain Sculpture in All India
A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c13.s9
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Section IX. Mediaeval Jain Sculpture in All India
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The Jain religion, now mostly confined to Rājputāna and the western provinces, was formerly, as already observed (*ante*, p. 11), far more widely extended than it is at the present day. In all ages Jains, like the adherents of the rival religions, freely enlisted the services of the sculptor. Numerous examples of Jain sculpture dating from mediaeval times are to be found in regions where the Jain religion is now non-existent. Almost all Jain images are so much alike that they may be disposed of summarily without the chronological and provincial classification indispensable for the discussion of Buddhist and Brahmanical sculpture.
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The excessive deference to ritual prescription, generally recognized as a defect in Hindu art, is carried to such an extremity by the Jains that images differing in age by a thousand years are almost indistinguishable 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.
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These observations apply chiefly to separate images. The Jains, as Mr. Walhouse has observed, delight in making their images of all substances and sizes, but almost always invariable in attitude, whether that be seated or standing. Most of the images belong to the Digambara school or sect, and are nude. Small portable effigies of the saints are made of crystal, alabaster, soapstone, bloodstone, and various other materials; while the large ones are carved from whatever kind of stone happens to be locally available. The seated statues are always posed in the cross-legged *yogī* attitude of meditation, with, so far as I know, only a single exception at Gwālior. The standing ones are ordinarily nude square-shouldered figures facing front, with the arms hanging straight down by the sides.
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Numberless images of both kinds might be figured without adding anything to the reader's knowledge of Indian art. They differ one from the other merely in the degree of perfection attained in mechanical execution. Undoubtedly the most remarkable of the Jain statues are the celebrated colossi of Southern India, the largest free-standing statues in Asia, which are three in number, situated respectively at Sravana Belgola in Mysore, and at Kārkala, and Yenūr (or Venūr) in South Kanara. All three, being set on the top of eminences, are visible for miles around, and, in spite of their formalism, command respectful attention by their enormous mass and expression of dignified serenity.
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The biggest, that at Sravana Belgola, stands about 56½ feet in height, with a width of 13 feet across the hips, and is cut out of a solid block of gneiss, apparently wrought *in situ*. That at Kārkala, of the same material, but some 15 feet less in height, is estimated to weigh 80 tons. The smallest of the giants, that at Yenūr, is 35 feet high. The three images are almost identical, but the one at Yenūr has the 'special peculiarity of the cheeks being dimpled with a deep, grave smile', which is considered to detract from the impressive effect.
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The extreme conventionalism of Jain art is well illustrated by the fact that, whereas all the three colossi are substantially identical, save for the smile at Yenūr, the dates vary widely. The Sravana Belgola statue owes its existence to the piety of the minister Chamunda Rāya, who erected it about a. d. 983; while the Kārkala image was consecrated in a. d. 1432, and the Yenūr one as late as 1604. The character of all three, and of most standing Jain statues, except for certain varying minor accessories, is sufficiently indicated by Plate LIII, representing the Kārkala image.¹
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¹ References are, for Sravana Belgola statue—*Ind. Ant.*, ii. 129, Pl.; *Ep. Ind.* vii. 108, Pl. (good); Rice, *Mysore and Coorg*, p. 47, Fig. of face. Kārkala statue—*Ind. Ant.*, ii. 353, Pl.; *Ep. Ind.*, vii. 112 (with small, bad photo.). Yenūr statue—*Ind. Ant.*, v. 37, Pl.; *Ep. Ind.*, vii. 112 (with small, bad photo.).
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A passing reference may be made to the five groups of Jain images cut in relief on the face of the steep cliff below the fort of Gwālior, all executed between a. d. 1440 and 1473, of which several are colossal, one being 57 feet high. The south-western group includes a recumbent image of a sleeping female, 8 feet in length, and a com- [Figure: PLATE LIII. Jain colossus at Kārkaḷa, South Kanara, Madras. (From *Ind. Ant.*, vol. ii, p. 353, lithogr. plate, by permission.)]
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position consisting of a male and female seated with a child.¹ Images in such attitudes are extremely rare. The Gwālior reliefs are mere curiosities without artistic value.
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¹ Cunningham, *Arch. S. Rep.*, ii. 364–8.
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In decorative sculpture, as distinguished from individual statuary, the Jains encouraged work of a high order of excellence and beauty, employed to adorn with the utmost possible magnificence the pillared chambers which were their favourite form of architecture. Nothing in the world can surpass for richness and delicacy of detail the marble columns and ceilings of the Mount Ābū temples (*ante*, Plates VI and VII), and it would be easy to fill a large volume with illustrations of more or less similar exquisite work in many localities.
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In this place it will suffice to give a single unpublished illustration of a Jain temple in Mysore, dating from about the twelfth century, for which I am indebted to the Archaeological Survey of that State. The central Tīrthankara, or saint, is in the usual conventional style, while the subordinate figures exhibit in an exaggerated form some of the least pleasing peculiarities of Hindu art, and the design of the scroll-work is better suited for metal than stone. Nevertheless the general effect is sumptuous and decorative (Plate LIV).
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Mr. Rice states that the façade of the Chandragupta *bastī*, a section of the ancient group of temples at Sravana Belgola, is 'a perforated stone screen containing ninety sculptured scenes of events in the lives of Bhadrabāhu and Chandragupta', probably executed in the twelfth century by a sculptor whose name is recorded.²
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² *Mysore and Coorg from the Inscriptions*, p. 5.
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I am not in a position to illustrate those interesting and unique compositions.