Land of Lime

Once every twelve years, Bahubali, standing on top of Indragiri in Sravanabelagola experiences Mahamastakabhisheka.

On February 8th, milk, honey, ghee, sacred water, tender coconut, flowers from many countries brought in special aircraft to Bengaluru will all be poured on the head of a 57 ft tall nude Bahubali statue. Deccan Herald reports:

On each Mahamastakabhisheka, 504 litres of water, 350 litres of milk, 300 litres of sugar cane juice, 350 litres of coconut water, 20 kg of sandalwood, 5 kg of herbal mixture, 100 kg rice powder and 50 kg turmeric powder are poured on the statue.

Hundreds of thousands of Jain devotees from all parts of the world congregate to witness and take part in the spectacle. Roads have been done up and a new rail service has been started from Hassan to Sravanabelagola. For those who can not make it to Sravanabelagola, there is a virtual abhisheka option: feel free to visit the site and perform an abhisheka.

Built around 980 AD by Chavundaraya (or Chamundaraya), the great minister of Ganga kings and a Kannada author of some repute, this great statue on top of a small hillock is an engineering marvel and needless to say, a sight to behold. It celebrates the great Jain ascetic Bahubali and his sacrifice. I should do a posting on what is one of my favorite stories, the war between brothers, Bharata and Bahubali, especially to point out how Jain imagination deals with the question of violence in comparison with Mahabharata. Bharata, who wants to become an emperor and conquer the entire world, is resisted by his brother Bahubali. Instead of the two armies fighting with each other, the two brothers compete in three non-violent forms of fighting: dristiyuddha (staring contest), jalayuddha (water-figting) and mallayuddha (wrestling). Bahubali defeated his elder brother but then repented his impulse to fight, as he realized the futility of his own victory and his brother’s quest. He renounced the world and practiced severe asceticism, which this image represents. Of course, the story is much more fascinating and requires to be treated at length.

In my South Asian Civilization class, each time we discuss Jainism, my students are struck by the ascetic impulse of rich Jains. In particular, we have often talked about a particular wealthy merchant from Ahmedabad in the early 1990s, who sat on an elephant and threw gold coins to the crowd, thus giving away his wealth before he embraced asceticism. It seems difficult to reconcile the effort put into acquiring wealth and towards a materialist life, which is then abandoned the moment a Jain realizes the futility of our materialist aims. Such realization could be brought about by anything: sighting a gray hair, for instance. Or the loss of a loved one. Here again is a theme for another posting.

Sravanabelagola also is a place of much historical significance. In the third century BC, Mauryan emperor Chandraguta Maurya is reputed to have come here with his teacher, Bhadrabahu, to spend his last few days. Since then, it has been a major center for Jain monks, who lived in the caves of Indragiri and Candragiri. Numerous inscriptions at Sravanabelagola provide a rich description of the history of the region.

Located in the middle of the Land of Lime, Sravanabelagola is also on my way to my village, Nimbehalli and so this is a place I would visit at least twice or thrice a year. Many years ago, I spent a couple of days with my dear friends, Jayaram Raipura and Byasdeb Dasgupta, walking through every inch of that town. Jayaram desperately wanted to believe that all of us, inhabitants of the Land of Lime, were Jains about a thousand years ago and slowly became adherents of Saiva and Vaisnava traditions, in the post-Ramanuja phase, after the 12th century. Jains were quite possibly influential but in the absence of inscriptions, let alone ethnographies, it is difficult to either accept or question his theory. I have of course delighted in questioning him. Needless to say, the memories of that visit still linger in my mind. So does a recent visit with my advisor, Prof. Sheldon Pollock and his daughter Nira.

For the people of Sravanabelagola, this is an opportunity to make some extra cash, which they do by renting out their homes and fields, where tents are erected. May they attain prosperity.