Indian Antiquary Vol 42

SR No.: 032534
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 400
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 16 MB

Page 299

NOVEMBER, 1913.]
MISCELLANEA
MISCELLANEA.
THE JOG OR GERSAPPE FALLS. THE Jog Falls on the Sharavati river,' which for about eight miles forms the boundary between Mysore and the North Kanara District of the Bombay Presidency, are best known to Europeans as the Gersappe Falls, though they are eight miles further up the river than that old village, and about thirty miles from Honâ var on the coast.
In the south of India there are not a few waterfalls of considerable height and volume. The falls of the Ghatprabha, near Gökâk in the Belgaum District, for example, are 170 feet high, horse-shoe shaped, and with a flood-breadth at the crest of 580 feet, discharging in November after the rains an average of nineteen tons of water per second.
But the Jôg on the Sharavati is by far the grandest, pouring a large volume of water over a vertical cliff with a sheer drop of 830 feet in height, and extending, even in the dry season, to about 720 yards across, whilst in the monsoon the flood is about doubled, rolling over the precipice at a depth of eight feet into a pool some 130 feet deep. In August 1844 Captain Newbold estimated the fall of water at 43,000 cubic feet per second. In November and later the sight of this mighty cataract is still magnificent; while during the rains the huge chasm is filled with the clouds of spray and mist which hang over the cliff. It is divided by rocks into four separate channels. The Raja or Grand Fall is that nearest the right or Kanara bank of the river, and by itself is a fine fall sweeping down in a smooth unbroken volume till lost in clouds of spray. A good way to the left is the second fall, named the Roarer from the noise it makes: it is within the curve on the north-end of the cliff, and falls into a basin whence it rushes down a deep channel and leaps out to join the Raja fall and the joint streams dash down a rugged gorge upon a great rock. The Rocket is outside the north curve and is of great beauty, and falling upon a projecting rock and darting out thence forms a rocket-like curve of 700 feet, throwing off sparkling jets of spray. To the left of this is the fourth cascade styled LaDame Blanche, which
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glides gracefully over the precipice in a sheet of foam and spreads out over the face of the rock down to the pool like folds of silver gauze.'
When visiting these falls in March 1880, I found the following lines in the visitors' book at the Kodkani Travellers' Bungalow, close to the falls, which I got copied out: they may be of interest to some readers: the author of them, Mr. Gordon Forbes, was a Madras Oivilian, and seems to have been at one time Head Assistant in South Kanara.
J. BURGESS.
GERSAPPE FALLS. Unnamed yet ancient river! Since the flood Your tribute-gathered from a thousand rillsIncreasing journeys to the Western main, Anon, as now in summer heats, waxed low, Winning slow way amongst the wave-worn rocks; Anon, ere many moons, above their crests Rolling triumpbant, an all-conquering flood. Thy varied scenes are like a changeful life : Turmoil and rest: now harassed and now still. Thou hast deep reaches where thy waters rest Calm as a healthful sleep; there drink at noon The wild herds of the woods; there with deep shade
Primeval forests curtain thy repose, Then on with gentle flow and rippling soundDimpled as mirth and musical as joy! On, lured to swiftness, or provoked to strife" By rough obstruction or inviting slope,On, still unconscious to the awful brink, Where the wild plunge hath made thee glorious. Mortal! where wast thou when the hand of God Quarried the chasms in the living rock, And rent the cliff to give the torrent way? How pigmy on the brink thy stature shows, Topping a rampart of a thousand feet! Bend o'er the cliff when the uplifting clouds Beveal the terrors of the deep abyss, Where the blue pigeon circles at mid height, And in the spray the darting swallow bathes; Then, with firm foot and brain undizzied, hurl A fragment from the precipice, and markWith fearful sympathy-its long, long fall! It dwindles to a speck, yet still descends, Descends and vanishes ere yet the eye
1 Kanarese jogu, 'a waterfall.'
Newbold in Jour. As. Beng., Vol. XIV, pp. 416 421; Bombay Gazetteer, Kanara, Vol. XV, pt. ii, pp. 284-298; Rice, Gazetteer of Mysore and Coorg, Vol. II, pp. 387-391; Murray's Handbook of India eto., 5th Ed., pp. 384-5; Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. XII., p. 210.