Chavundaraya

VINDHYAGIRI: THE FORGOTTEN GLORY-Part 2, Bharat Darshan: exploring the unexplored (Episode-10)

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• published: 24 Dec 2012
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In this show of our documentary travelogue on Doordarshan, "Bharat Darshan: exploring the unexplored", Sukhnidhey Films (www.sukhnidhey.com), in the second part of "VINDYAGIRI: THE FORGOTTEN GLORY", takes you to ancient Karnataka, to explore the Vindyagiri mountain, the home to some very ancient treasures, which despite their architectural beauty, engineering accuracy and sculptural wonders have escaped people's attention. In an adventurous mountaineering trek with extreme adrenaline rush, we reach the peak of Vindyagiri through an ancient route, barefoot without any mountaineering equipment, with some portions of the climb being exceptionally steep! We get to the Akhand Bagilu, or the Monolithic Gateway, a giant doorway carved out of a single stone. On the lintel is the "makartorana", or the crocodile gateway decoration, called the "Gaja-Laksmi" panel. The beautifully sculpted panel was carved out under the supervision of the celebrated minister, also an accomplished poet of the Ganga dynasty, Chamundaraya in 980 A.D.. The Gajlakshmi panel depicts two elephants flanking Goddess Lakshmi, performing the sacred Mastakabhisheka ritual through two pots. Goddess Laksmi is the deity of wealth and prosperity, and is frequently seen in Indian arts symbolising abundance.The Gajalakshmi panel also features the makaras( the crocodiles) on the either sides of the main overhead arch,the lions, and the like, some of them mythological beasts. The Akhand Bagilu is regarded by scholars as housing the largest Gajalaksmi panel in the country, and undoubtedly the finest specimen of the Ganga arts and workmanship in the entire world. On the two sides of the akhanda bagilu are two cells, built later by Bharatmayya, the general of the Hoysala king Vishnuvardhana, inside which are idols of the sages Bahubali Gometeshwara, and Bharata muni, the two sons of the first Jaina Tirthankara, Lord Rishabhadeva, or Lord Adinatha. We continue our journey to the top, and encounter footprint like engravings sculpted on the way, symbolizing the meditation site of some Jain muni or Tirthankara on this very sacred mountain. We next reach the Siddhar Basti (Siddhar Basadi), or the Siddhar temple, built in the 14th Century, houses the ancient idol of Lord Siddha-Bhagwan tirthankar in its sanctum sanctorum. The temple is known for two columns outside the garbhagriha or the sanctum sanctorum, which bear inscriptions in the praise of Saints Panditharadhya and Srtamuni. The text is said to have been composed by the celebrated Kannada poet, Mangaraja. We spot some amazing and incredibly crafted sculptures depicting the Jaina tirthankaras, the yakshas and the yakshis. It is said that nearly 2300 years ago a severe drought in north India lead nearly 12,000 Jain monks took undertake a vihara, or a barefoot migration, from the north to the town of Shravanabelgola in the south under the leadership of the Jaina sage Bhadrabahu. This is now the very widely accepted theory of the onset, or more precisely, the revival of Jaina religion in south India. The then emperor of the north, Chandragupta Maurya, later became himself a Jaina ascetic and meditated on the hill directly opposite to the Vindhyagiri mountain in Shravanbelagola, which later bore his name, the "Chandragiri". Nearly 1300 years later, in 981 A.D., the Ganga dynasty minister, Chamundaraya once took a night halt on the Chandragiri hill with his mother, Kalala devi, and his guru, Shri Nemichandra, when all three had the same dream wherein yakshi Kushmandini devi instructed Chamundaraya to direct an arrow from Chandragiri to Vindhyagiri. On actually doing so, the stone took form of an immense statue of Lord Bahubali which was later finished and sculpted to its present form by the expert Ganga sculptors. One cannot but admire the serene expressions of the Lord, and the patterns of leaves and the climbers which have twined about his arms and legs.The magnificent idol with the flight of 660 steps leading to it and the Vindhyagiri mountain is actually a single rock and must have been an extraordinary engineering feat to accomplish in the ancient times, that too on the top of a 470 feet high Vindhyagiri. The Kushmandini devi idol in the shrine-group, "Suttalya", surrounding the main statue lends sculptural evidence to Her contribution in the grand construction. A sculpture of yakshi Padmavati devi in the Gullekayi Ajji Mantapa outside commemorates the first Mahamastakabhisheka when yakshi Padmavati took the form of an old lady to humble the pride of a haughty Chamundaraya. Though the milk poured over the idol by Chamundaraya would never reach the bottom, the lady's small pot full of milk ran down the hill, filling a pond in the valley with milk. The name "Shravanabelagola "derives from "Shravana" meaning "Jain monk" in Kannada, while "bela gola" is a distorted form of "bedi kuda" meaning a white pond, this being a etymological evidence of such incident actually having taken place.