ShravanBelagola, is a small town in South Indian State of Karnataka. A place of Jain importance. Also home to world's Tallest monolithic Statue of Lord Bahubali. Lord Bahubali was son of Adinatha ( First Lord of Jain religion). The Place is also called Gomeshwara as well.
he Gommateshwara statue (ಗೊಮ್ಮಟೇಶ್ವರ) is the tallest monolithic statue in the world, carved out of a single block of granite. It is 57-foot (17 m) high monolithic and located on Vindyagiri at Shravanbelagola in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is so tall that it can be seen from 30 km away. It symbolizes Peace, Non violence, sacrifice worldly affairs, and simple living as followed by Jainism. ( From Wiki Pedia)
How to reach :
You can take taxi or bus from Banguluru, the capital city of karnataka. The palce is well connected and there are hotels in areas as well. Bus and taxi takes 3 hours to Shavanbelagola. Roads are decent and buses can be confortable depending upon what you book. From banguluru, it can cost anywhere between USD 5 to USD 10 depending upon class of bus.
Gommatgiri/Sharvanbelagola :
There are two hills, Vindhyagiri and Chandra giri. Both the hills houses several jain Temples. Dating bacck to 800 C.E. The temples in themselves are of historical importance in terms of architecture and craft, but to Jain people they are of spritual Significance. The sect to which this Temple belong to is called DIGAMBARA, which means there are no clothes over the idols or statues in the temples.
the idols are in penence form devoid of any clothes and signify detachment to world, to such an extent that even clothes do not matter.
There is lot of iconography in the temple. It is somply not possible to show everything in a post. But i will try my level best to take you on a journey of how it is, through my camera lens.
Some Pictures from my Journey to The Place :
Part of the Entry gate: The Art work is beautiful. Here elephant are are paying respect with thei trunk over the head of Goddess.
theer are several steps in the way, this is the enetrance to the temple.
So many steps ( about 1200 of them to be Exact0 to reach temple.
Main temple Picture :
Picture from inside temple :
The Goddess to protect temple :
A view of surrounding :
Some Carvings in the temple.
Water Painting inside temple.
One pillar of the enterance of temple.
With this i close my post about the temple in South india. I will try to write a more comprehensive post about my journey there.
Till next time
Cheers
Sid!