Gommateshwara statue

Also called: Bahubali statue, Bahubali statue of Shravanabelagola · Topic: Southern Dynasties: Chalukyas, Pallavas, Cholas · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 3 "Empires and Kingdoms: 6th to 10th Centuries"

Meaning

The Gommateshwara statue is a huge stone statue of the Jain figure Bahubali, carved from one single rock (a monolith). It stands on the Vindhyagiri hill at Shravanabelagola, Karnataka. Most accounts date it to c. 983 CE and name Chavundaraya as its patron. He was a minister and general of the Western Ganga kings.

It is one of the largest free-standing monolithic statues in the world. It shows that kings and ministers in South India supported Jainism as well as Hindu temple building in the same centuries. Its Mahamastakabhisheka ("great head-anointing") festival keeps it in the news.

Explanation

Background: who Bahubali was and why the statue was made

• In Jain tradition, Bahubali was a son of Rishabhanatha, the first Jain tirthankara (a great teacher who shows the path to liberation).
• The story behind the pose:
• Bahubali fought his brother Bharata for the kingdom and won.
• He then felt that power was empty. He gave everything up and became a monk.

• He meditated standing still for so long that creepers grew up his legs and arms, and anthills formed at his feet.

• Jains believe he gained kevala jnana (complete knowledge) through this. This is why he is honoured, even though he is not a tirthankara.

• Gommata is another name for Bahubali, so the statue is called Gommateshwara ("Lord Gommata").
• The patron, Chavundaraya (also spelt Chamundaraya), served the Western Ganga ruler Rachamalla IV. He was a devout Jain. He also wrote the Chavundaraya Purana, an early Kannada prose work on Jain teachers.

Main features: style and material

• Material: a single block of granite, carved where it stands on the hilltop.
• Height: about 57 feet (roughly 17–18 m). Accounts give slightly different measurements.
• Posture: the kayotsarga pose (standing straight and still, with arms hanging loosely at the sides). This is the classic Jain pose for deep meditation.
• Digambara form: the figure is nude. This follows the Digambara ("sky-clad") Jain idea that a true monk gives up everything, even clothes.
• Carved details from the story:
• creepers winding up the legs and arms

• anthills and snakes near the feet

• Face: calm, with a faint smile. This shows inner peace after giving up the world.

• Design trick: the statue stands in the open with no temple roof over it. So it can be seen from far away across the plain.

How it is honoured: the Mahamastakabhisheka

• Mahamastakabhisheka means "great head-anointing". It is held about once every 12 years.
• How it works:
• A scaffold is built behind the statue.
• Pilgrims pour milk, curd, ghee, sugarcane juice, saffron, sandalwood paste, turmeric and flowers over the head from the top.

• The liquids flow down the whole figure.

• It was most recently held in 2018. This is why the statue often appears in current affairs.

Results and importance

• Shravanabelagola became one of the most important Jain pilgrimage centres in South India.
• The statue shows that the monolith idea was not only for temples. The Pallavas had carved whole temples from one rock at Mamallapuram [3]. Here a giant statue was carved from one rock instead.
• It shows that Jainism had strong royal and official support in Karnataka in this period. This happened alongside the great Hindu temples of the Chalukyas and Cholas.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: late 10th century CE, c. 983 CE according to most accounts.
• Dynasty: the Western Gangas of Gangavadi (southern Karnataka). The patron was minister-general Chavundaraya, under Rachamalla IV.
• Place: Shravanabelagola, Hassan district, Karnataka, on the Vindhyagiri (also called Indragiri) hill.

• The facing hill is Chandragiri. Jain tradition links it with the monk Bhadrabahu and with Chandragupta Maurya, who is said to have ended his life there by fasting (sallekhana). This is a tradition, not a proven fact.

• Wider time frame: the statue belongs to the same broad period as the early Chola emperor Rajaraja (r. AD 985–1012), who built Brihadisvara at Thanjavur [2].

• Evidence:
• Inscriptions at the base of the statue in Kannada, Tamil and an early form of Marathi name Chavundaraya as the person who had it made. The Marathi line is often cited as one of the earliest Marathi inscriptions.
• Many Jain inscriptions on the two hills of Shravanabelagola record gifts, monks and fasting deaths. Historians use them to trace Jain history in Karnataka.
• The Chavundaraya Purana shows the patron's Jain learning and his role in early Kannada literature.

Don't confuse with

• Rishabhanatha / tirthankaras: Bahubali is not a tirthankara. He is Rishabhanatha's son. A favourite Prelims trap is "Gommateshwara is a statue of the first tirthankara". That is wrong.
• Mamallapuram monoliths (Pallava): these are whole temples (rathas) cut from single rocks in the 7th–8th centuries on the Coromandel coast [3]. Gommateshwara is a single statue, made by a Western Ganga minister in the 10th century.
• Pattadakal Jain sanctuary: Pattadakal (Chalukya, 7th–8th c.) has nine Hindu temples and one Jain sanctuary [4]. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Shravanabelagola is a separate Jain centre in a different part of Karnataka, and it is not on the UNESCO list.
• Other Bahubali statues in Karnataka (Karkala, Venur): these are later, smaller copies from the medieval period. The original and tallest old one is at Shravanabelagola.

Prelims Hooks

• Gommateshwara statue → Shravanabelagola (Vindhyagiri hill), Hassan district, Karnataka.
• Patron → Chavundaraya, minister of the Western Ganga king Rachamalla IV, c. 983 CE. It is not a Chola, Chalukya or Rashtrakuta work.
• Subject → Bahubali (Gommata), son of the first tirthankara Rishabhanatha. He is not himself a tirthankara.
• Posture → kayotsarga, nude (Digambara), single granite monolith, about 57 ft.
• Mahamastakabhisheka → head-anointing festival held about every 12 years, most recently in 2018.
• Chavundaraya also wrote the Chavundaraya Purana, an early Kannada prose text. The base inscription includes an often-cited early Marathi line.

Mains Points

• Religious variety under royal patronage. In the same centuries, Chalukya Pattadakal mixed Hindu temples with a Jain sanctuary [4], Chola kings built huge Shiva temples [2], and a Ganga minister raised the world's best-known Jain statue. South Indian rulers and their officials supported several faiths at once. This is useful for answers on religious tolerance and pluralism in early medieval India.
• Continuity and change in South Indian stone art.
• The Pallavas carved whole temples from one rock at Mamallapuram [3].
• The Western Gangas applied the same monolith skill to a single giant figure.

• So the craft carried on, but its purpose shifted from a house for a god to a figure of a human ideal (giving up the world).

• A living heritage. Like the "living" Chola temples, where worship has never stopped [2], Gommateshwara is still worshipped. The Mahamastakabhisheka draws pilgrims from across India about once every 12 years. The statue joins Jain ideas of non-violence and renunciation, early Kannada literature, and multilingual inscriptions. It is a strong example for GS-I answers on Indian art, culture and heritage.

Related concepts

• Chola bronzes
• Nataraja
• Swamimalai bronze icons
• Airavatesvara temple, Darasuram
• Great Living Chola Temples
• Chidambaram temple
• Angkor Wat

Read more

• Art and architecture of the south