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EDITOR'S NOTE
Atituigākştiyāgodāgadadadaro! soundaryamounnatyamum Nuta soundaryamumāge mattatisayam tānagadounatyamun Nuta soundaryamumūrjitāliśayamum tannalli nindirduvēm Kșitisampūjyamo Gommațeśvarajina trirūpamātmöpaman.
The 12th century Kannada poet Boppaņa has given a beautiful description of the colossal statue of Gommateśvara at Sravanabelgoļa. The poem has been inscribed on the stone pillar at Sravanabelgola. The Gommata statue at Sravagabe!goļa is unique and unparalleled as it crystallises the synthesis of the imposing height with grandeur and serenity. The childlike innocence on the face and the serene dignity of posture lead us to the heights of meditative spiritual excellence.
The story of Bāhubali is an enobling story. It leads us to the kindly light of spiritual glory. Hunger and thirst after righteousness is filled. Bahubali is Gommateśvara, the Lord of the beautiful. Bahubali symbolises the noblest and the best in man. His personality expresses the harmonious blending of the secular and the spiritual. He was the King ruling at Paudanapur. He lived the life of royal splendour with dignity and self-respect. When his elder brother, Bharata, having acquired the Cakraratna, sent his emissary to Bāhubali asking him to accept his authority, he said to the emissary, 'If your Cakravartin was to send for me as a brother, I would have gladly gone to meet him. But your Cakravartin is an ambitious man, and ambition knows no bounds. I would rather meet him on the battlefield'. In order to avoid unnecessary bloodshed, the two brothers were engaged in 3 forms of duel - i) drsti yuddha (staring at each other to the point of exhaustion, ii) jalayuddha (splashing water at each other) and bāhu-yuddha (wrestling)'. Ācārya Jinasena has mentioned vägyuddha (continuous talking to exhaustion) as an additional form of duel.' And Bāhubali won. Bharata was humiliated. Bharata was enraged and he set the Cakraratna at his brother against
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