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The colossal statue of Bahubali at Sravanabelgola, of the rocky hill of Indrabetta, in Mysore state, has been regarded as a 1,000 years old wonder in stone.2 The Sage Bahubali, is portrayed in deep meditation and plants climb him unnoticed, the ant-hills arose at his feet and his feet are entwined with weeds and kukkuța sarpas. He attained nirvāņa in that position of kayotsarga (i.e. standing erect in bodily abandonment). "This is one of those colossal statues that are found in this part of the country" (Karnataka), says Walhouse, "statues truly Egyptian in size, and unrivalled throughout India as detached works... Nude, cut from a single mass of granite, darkened by the monsoons of centuries, the vast statue stands upright, with arms hanging, straight, but not awkwardly, down the sides in a posture of somewhat stiff but simple dignity." It is indeed
"A statue solid set
And moulded in colossal calm !"
The mystic beauty and the ascetic dignity of these colossal statues have always commanded respect from the on-lookers. Even a muslim invadar like Hyderali was wonderstruck to look at the great colossus and granted villages for the worship of Sri Gommatesvara.3 Recently the wonderful attraction of the grand statue have won the hearts of many a pious. Jainas from the northern India, who have now managed to erect colossal statues of Bahubali of great heights (but not exceeding 57 feet) at Arrah in Bihar, at Ayodhya and Sonagir in Uttara Pradesh and at Bahubali Kumbhoj in Maharashtra. Another colossus of Bahubali is under construction at Bombay also.
JAIN JOURNAL
R. C. Mazumdar, H. C. Raychoudhury and Kalikinkar Datta An Advanced History of 'India/Macmillan & Co. Ltd./London/1968/p. 151.
They (the Hoysalas) perhaps inherited the art traditions of their predecessors, the Gangas, during whose rule the famous colossal Jaina image of Gomata was constructed by Camundaraya, a minister, in about A.D. 983. The statue, placed on the top of a hillock at Sravana Belgola, is more than 56 feet high, i.e., about ten times the size of a human being. It is wrought out of a single block of stone of the hardest species. In boldness of conception and difficulty of execution, it has perhaps no rival among the sculptures of the world.
The World's Greatest Wonders (London), p. 47. 3 Studies in South Indian Jainism, I, pp. 116-117.
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