Symbols The holiest Digambara
where there is the fifty-seven foot high image of Bahubali standing in meditation in the kayotsarga posture, arms away from the side, and with creepers growing round his arms and legs and anthills covering his lower legs to symbolize the length of time he has been meditating. The Digambaras believe he is the first person in the world to achieve liberation. This was erected in 981 by Camundaraya, a general of a king of the Ganga dynasty, to symbolise the ascetic fighting the spiritual battle. Bahubali was the son of Rishabha, the first Jina, and when he defeated his half-brother Bharata in a duel, he did not take over as king but renounced the throne and took to meditating in the forest. This is also symbolic of pressures at that time for the Jain warrior between the claims of war and religion.
Since 1398 every ten to fifteen years, depending on astrology, the mastakabhisheka, head anointment, ceremony takes place, one of the most spectacular in India. Milk, liquid saffron, and other substances in 1,008 pots are poured over the head of Bahubali from a platform by prominent lay people. Today, flowers are also dropped on the statue from a helicopter. The statue is on the Big Hill. The Little Hill is also an important place of pilgrimage because of generations of Digambara ascetics who have died there by sallekhana, fasting, testified by nisidhi, memorials of stone relief's, pillars, images, and temples. A fissure in the rock is called Bhadrabahu's Cave after the supposed leader of the southern migration. Hero stones of those who died in battle are placed near the memorials of the ascetics.
where there is the fifty-seven foot high image of Bahubali standing in meditation in the kayotsarga posture, arms away from the side, and with creepers growing round his arms and legs and anthills covering his lower legs to symbolize the length of time he has been meditating. The Digambaras believe he is the first person in the world to achieve liberation. This was erected in 981 by Camundaraya, a general of a king of the Ganga dynasty, to symbolise the ascetic fighting the spiritual battle. Bahubali was the son of Rishabha, the first Jina, and when he defeated his half-brother Bharata in a duel, he did not take over as king but renounced the throne and took to meditating in the forest. This is also symbolic of pressures at that time for the Jain warrior between the claims of war and religion.
Since 1398 every ten to fifteen years, depending on astrology, the mastakabhisheka, head anointment, ceremony takes place, one of the most spectacular in India. Milk, liquid saffron, and other substances in 1,008 pots are poured over the head of Bahubali from a platform by prominent lay people. Today, flowers are also dropped on the statue from a helicopter. The statue is on the Big Hill. The Little Hill is also an important place of pilgrimage because of generations of Digambara ascetics who have died there by sallekhana, fasting, testified by nisidhi, memorials of stone relief's, pillars, images, and temples. A fissure in the rock is called Bhadrabahu's Cave after the supposed leader of the southern migration. Hero stones of those who died in battle are placed near the memorials of the ascetics.
EmoticonEmoticon