We drive across the bridge over this canal. Haven’t come across any such rocky deep canal. It belongs to Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar days, but I seem to have forgotten the name.
Aaaaaahh… And our first glimpse of the hill. Could even see Gomateshwara. The greenery, the hill excited me so much that I ended overtaking the on guy on the bike(captured in the snap below) from right, and while he was approaching in the opposite direction! Arrr, awkward glances, to which I smiled back.
Sharavanabelogala in Hassan district, is an important Jain pilgrim centers. I consists of 2 hills, Vindyagiri and Chandragiri. A 100 steps leads you to the top of Vindyagiri. You are supposed to climb the hill bare foot. For those sensitive foots, they sell socks for Rs 10 per pair, which would last a climb.
Chandragiri and the Kalyani separating both hills, from Vindyagiri.
This one caught my attention on the way.
For the pages : The Vindhyagiri hill is home to a thousand year-old gigantic 17.38 meter high monolithic stone statue of the Bhagavan Gomateshwara Bahubali, considered to be the world's largest, built by Chamundaraya, a general of king Gangaraya. The base of the statue has inscriptions in Kannada, Tamil and the oldest evidence of written Marathi from 981 AD. Every 12 years, thousands of devotees congregate here to perform the Mahamastakabhisheka, a spectacular ceremony where the thousand-year-old statue is anointed with milk, curds, ghee, saffron and sandal-paste.
The first glimpse
And then we enter..........
On either sides of Lord Bahubali, you find these sculptures.
And one of my favorite snaps.
Chandrgiri from atop Vindyagiri
Such mantaps and pillars always interest me.
As we explored this area, we found it was dotted by ‘pairs’ at regular intervals. I think, on falling in love, they gain expertise in lying and in finding secluded places.
He too was visiting the shrine.
After a lunch at the base, we drove towards Melukote. The highlight of the lunch was that it was 5 of us! When me, mom, dad, bro settled down under a tree, we were joined by a cute 45days old calf, which loved curd rice and hadn’t yet learned to eat a Banana peel.
3 comments:
Nice pictures again. Especially the first pic. Werent the road decorated with blossoming flower trees on both sides? I am surprised u didnt get any pics of that :)
Sandeep, Thanks.Yes the roads were a bliss. Calm and serene, greenery and flowering trees. But, I was so lost in driving through this, that I never took my Camera out. :-)
Very nice pics. Gomateshwara is the tallest statue in the world. Dedicated to Lord Bahubali, located in Shravanabelagola. Shravanabelagola is a very important for pilgrimage and religion for centuries. Very nice view of the statue during the festival of Mahamastakabhishekam which is held once in 12 years.
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