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THE COLOSSAL STATUE OF GOMMATESVARA AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
How and why this statue can be viewed as one of the wonders of the world :
Any object in the visible world, which is unparalleled, whose counter parts. or imitations can have no comparison with it, and whose mere sight evokes admiration in any thinking human mind can be rightly considered as one of the wonders of the world, if not as a miracle. The biggest river like Nile or Amazon or Bramhaputra, tallest mountain like Everest or Himalaya, the Great wall of China, monumental architecture like Tajmahal at Agra or Pyramids of Egypt rank as some of the wonders of the world. Foreign travellers and other site-seers, poets and philosophers, seers and sages, famous painters and builders, sculptors and artists, who have had the good fortune of seeing this colossal statue at Sravanabelgola, even once, return with a firm conviction that this statue is really one of the wonders of the world.
D. S. PARMAJ
Some special features of this statue :
The first important feature of this holy statue is its very situation at the top of a mountain called Indragiri opposite to its counterpart called Candragiri. The statue is one with the mountain, the top portion of which is so finely, artistically and symmetrically hewn and shaped into a huge, splendid, colossal statue. Colossus is a huge, gigantic, superhuman being in Greek mythology. This statue is a monolithic figure, as it is carved out of a single block of granite stone, forming the top of a mountain. The total height of the statue itself is 58 feet at the top level of the mountain. So it has an added grace, it being visible to a naked eye from most of the places round about the mountain within a radius of 20 to 25 miles. Tiptur Railway Station may be about 25 miles from the statue but pilgrims alighting at the said Station can see the face of the holy Bahubali statue from there.
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