Mastery in stonework: Jewel of Jinanathapura

According to a popular belief, a prolonged famine in the Mauryan Empire propelled the scholar and sage Bhadrabahu to compel Emperor Chandragupta to renounce the kingdom and move to Karnataka.

The emperor and the ascetic, along with the migrants, chose Shravanabelagola in Hassan district as their final destination. According to scholar R V S Sundaram, epigraphical evidence confirms this belief.

This event, scholars say, was the start of Jainism in Karnataka. Certain other schools believe Jainism in Karnataka predates the arrival of Chandragupta by many
decades.

Shravanabelagola became the centre of Jainism in Karnataka. Writer and scholar Robert Del Bonta says Shravanabelagola developed over the centuries and represents some of the greatest achievements of the Kannadiga craftsman.

As the Mauryan Empire collapsed and Satavahana and their successors came to power, Jainism became the religion of the kings of Karnataka, and flourished. And many basadis came up.

We shall travel a couple of km north of Shravanabelagola to Jinanathapura to visit one such basadi.

In the year 1117 CE, Gangaraja, a senior minister and general of the Hoysala King Vishnuvardana, established a suburban settlement at Jinanathapura at the northern foot of Chandragiri, the smaller hill in Shravanabelagola.

The jewel of Jinanathapura, the Shantinatha Basadi (or Shantisvara Basadi) was constructed by Recana or Recarasa.

The inscription on the pedestal of Shantinatha says that one Vasudhaika Bandhava Recimayya commissioned this basadi and offered it to the feet of his guru Sagaranandi Siddhantadeva.

The basadi came about in 1200 CE, during the rule of Ballala II.

Aesthetics all

The Hoysala-Jaina temples either followed Ganga models like Chavundaraya Basadi in Shravanabelagola or were even plainer with flat or unadorned walls. They were built of granite, had unpretentious exteriors, and lavished the bulk of their ornamentation into the interiors.

This basadi with a single garbhagudi has been constructed on a raised platform or jagathi. It has the distinction of being the only basadi built in Hoysala style.

In the square-shaped garbhagudi, the 5-feet 6-inches tall Shantinatha is seen seated on a pedestal, facing east.

Outside this is the sukanasi, connecting the main hall to the garbhagudi. The sukanasi lintel has five-seated Jina figures. The central seated figure of Shantinatha is on a throne.

The inner wall of the basadi is made of granite. The exterior is made of large blocks of schist. The lavish exterior consists of many motifs. The centre of the three walls of the vimana has large Jina figures accompanied by dancers and musicians, besides yaksha and yakshis.

Writer Vatsala Iyengar says that the early Jainism shunned ritual worship and the female deity worship was absent.

As the Shakti cult developed in India, the Yapaniya sect of Jains, in order to attract commoners into the Jain fold, initiated yakshi worship. The yakshis are described as the sasana devathas of Tirthankaras.

They are endowed with semi-divine attributes and step in to fulfil the prayers of the devotees.

Hampa Nagarajiah, a renowned Jaina scholar, says the names of these yakshis as well as yakshas could have had their genesis in Dravidian village gods and goddesses as well as Vedic traditions. Padmavathi, Chakreshvari, Ambika and Vajrashrinkhala are some of the yakshis and vidya devis of the Jaina pantheon at the basadi.

See amorous love

According to Dr Rekha Rao, our ancients divided shringara (erotic love) into aayoga (lovers longing to unite), viprayoga (separation of lovers post meeting and their desire to reunite), and sambhoga (in which the lovers unite in mind and body).

Aayoga can be spent in ramya desa (location-based, like garden or lake) and ramya kalaa (in harmonious state of mind), like when a woman hears from her pet parrot about her lover.

There are two reliefs of amorous couples at the basadi. They are among the rarest of maithuna (sexual union) reliefs encountered in Hoysala temples. Sculptures of dancing men and women and instrumental players would also fall under
ramya kaala.

The dances depicted on the panels are the classical dance forms of Karnataka such as Perani, Gaundali and Chati Nritya, according according to professors Ramya Suraj and Vasanth Kiran. The dance forms have long disappeared.

According to Anupama Jayasimha, a dancer, 21st century has seen the revival of dance forms like Perani and Goundali.

A figure of a woman throwing away her clothes fearing a scorpion is one of the well-done sculptures at this basadi. The scorpion symbolises qualities like lust, anger and greed. The ancient literature also says it carries an ever-present aura of passion and attraction.

Art historian S Settar is critical of the quality of the sculptures at the basadi. He says,“Here, it’s difficult to distinguish the male from the female, for both are stunted and suffer from the weight of their volume, and both share too the burden of ornaments and dullness of expression.”