Jainism sees Bahubali as an important figure. Son of first thirthankars of Jainism, swami Rishabhanatha, Bahubali had meditated motionless for one long year which made creepers around him grow over him. It is said that Bahubali was enlightened during his meditation. Bahubali is worshipped by jains across the world, but non jains also like to have a look at these monolithic statues that are build by Kings of different dynasties and are spread in and around Karnataka.
Better known as Gomateshwara statues, these are huge naked statues that stand tall admist acres of open land that are boundried by grante stones. The tallest one at 17 metres stands at Shravana Belegola and was elected by Ganga Dynasty king Chavundaraya in 981 A.D. one can get to see more of Gomateshwara at Venur, Dharmasthala and Moodbidri.
Gomateshwara's are all carved out of single rock and that makes them all the more interesting. Recently I had been to Venur, a small town near Mangalore, that has various small and big Jain temples, but it's claim to fame is that Gomateshwara's statue that was built by the direct decendents of the same king who built the tallest Gomateshwara's statue at Shravana Belegola.
The tales that explain what prompted Bahubali to abondon clothes and meditate is interesting. It is believed that Rishabhanatha, a great king, divided his kingdom equally among all his sons before taking up Jainism. His 98 sons follow him on his religious path while 2 of his sons, king Bharath and Bahubali were looking after what they were assigned. King Bharath wanted Bahubali to leave his role as a king, but Bahubali wanted to pursue his role, this led to minor Tiff between the brothers and they decided that they would fight it out in a non violent way. Three rounds were organised. In all of which Bahubali won exceptionally. Bahubali was however, not happy with the fact that he was a reason for his brothers unhappiness and went on to find Moksha. King Bharatha was not happy to see his brother abondon his family and all earthly pleasure and held himself responsible for his brothers condition. Bahubali went on to become a digambar saint and Bharath ended up being his follower. There are a lot more details into it which I didn't cover and it is just a outline of the real story. Jain mythology is a lot different from Hindu mythology and is very interesting too.
