Trip to Shravanabelagola

Vivek suddenly told me about his idea to visit Shravanabelgola the next day. Since it was Sunday, I agreed to accompany him. Shravanabelagola was one of the few places I had always longed to visit. It was decided that next day we will be taking the earliest bus and we will be meeting at Vontikoppal Circle.

The next day, I was ready by 5:30 am and reached the circle at about 6. Vivek was already present. At this wee light hour, it was totally dark with hardly any street lamps. It was very calm as well.

We reached the Mysore Bus Stand at around 7. We had light breakfast at the canteen and boarded 7:15 Mysore- Shravanabelagola bus. The conductor welcomed her only passengers with a warm smile and thus we were on our way to Shravanabelagola. The bus took the Bangalore highway till Shrirangapatna and from there it took left turn confirming us that we were indeed going to Shravanabelagola. Since we were the only passengers in the bus, by now both driver and conductor knew the whole of out bio-data!

Unlike in our North Karnataka, even the interior roads were good. But the sight that caught my attention was that of the rich sugarcane fields on either sides of the road. The irrigation facilities here seemed to be excellent, which has made this region prosperous. I realized why River Cauvery is called ‘The Lifeline of South Karnataka’ and M. Visveshwaraih as ‘Annadata’. Throughout the journey I could see such rich fields, which made our journey cooler than it really was.

The bus finally stopped. We realized that we were in Pandavpur, a small town. Finally, some passengers boarded the bus and made us aware that we indeed had not hired the bus. But still the bus looked empty. Again the bus started moving quietly. This I compared with bus-journey in our North Karnataka, where such quite journey is impossible. People talk to you irrespective of whether they really know you. But in this part of the state it was different.

The bus reached K R Pet, the largest town in that region. All the other passengers got down and again it was only my friend and me. We were the only passengers who were traveling till Shravanabelagola. It takes around 2 and half hours to Shravanabelagola from Mysore.

Shravanabelagola is tiny place, with only one main street. There are not many hotels and other shops. We had breakfast at one the restaurants and started moving towards the hills. The town has two hills and the whole town is spread between these hills only. One of the hills is called Chandragiri- whose hilltop is the abode of Bhadrabahu and second one is called Vindyagiri which is the abode of Bahubali- famous as ‘Gomateshwara’. It is said that Bhadrabahu and Bahubali were brothers and Bahubali was youngest of the two.

First we went to Chandragiri hilltop. It has 300 steps all cut into the hill. The specialty of these hills is that they are not lumps of earth but are single huge rocks and the steps are cut into them.This makes climbing even more thrilling. Chandragiri hilltop has in total 14 Basadis (Jain term for temples) and one cave. Chavundaraya Basadi is the most enthralling and important among all the Basadis. It is a two-floored construct. We were struck by the architectural beauty it exhibits. There are idols of Gomeda Yaksha and Kushmandini Yakshini. I was stunned by the ornaments being carved on them. The thing that interested me the most was their crown, they have chains cut into the stone of about 5mm in width and 5 cm in length. These chains are loose that is they are not touching the stone behind. I thought it was the peak of delicacy. Amazing isn’t it?

We also saw other basadis which had almost similar type of construction. Yaksha and Yakshini idols were present in every basadi. One more important thing to see here is Ranna’s handwriting (Ranna is one of greatest Kannada poets). The cave which is at around 100 m from the Basadi compound is said to be the penance-place of an important Jain monk.

Now after getting down from Chandragiri we started moving towards Vindyagiri to witness the worlds second largest and India’s largest monolith. But more importantly I was minutes away from my long cherished dream.

Vindyagiri has 643 steps. It is a great adventure for youth but for aged people dolis are available. Even though it was great fun climbing we had to take two halts in between. While climbing if you look down, you can see only the marble colored rock and nothing else. It definitely is a stunning view. Even when you reach the hilltop you can’t see Gomteshwara, because He is covered by a compound. The entrance of the compound has a statue of Gajalakshmi. It is considered to be one of largest Gajalakshmi statues in India. The whole compound wall is made up of big rocks and cemented using gachha (a kind of cementing material used in ancient India). Then we entered one more entrance and lo we are standing is front of the architectural masterpiece, holiest point of Jains, sacrifice personified, pride of Karnataka - Gomteshwara.

The statue was carved in 982AD by Aristanemi. The statue is 18 m (58’ 8”) high. The statue has anthills carved near Gomteshwara’s feet. It is so very well carved and imagined that we can see the snakes peeping out of these anthill holes. Gomteshwara is standing on Lotus Pedestal in Kayothsarga posture. The statue is so very well carved that even the minutest detail is been taken care of- like the nails, the eyebrows, eyelashes, dimpled chin. The left and the right half of the statue are exactly the mirror image. I wondered how, as back as 982AD when no advanced tools were available, can such a masterpiece be made. Salutations to the sculptor! Gomteshwara has curly Dakshinavartha hair. The lips are curved and it appears as though Gomateshwara is smiling. He has raised eyebrows, long ears, pointed nose and broad chest. It is said that the eyes are focused on tip of the nose. Very interesting thing to notice is that he has his index finger slightly placed over middle finger. Great imagination and equally great carving isn’t it?

As we came out of the compound we can see Tygada Kamba (Pillar of sacrifice), which again is architecture lovers delight. Vindyagiri doesn’t have any basadis like Chandragiri. Slowly we climbed down Vindyagiri. We were very hungry, heavy exercise you see. We had lunch in a hotel and walked towards bus station. Interestingly, we got the same bus that we had taken that morning. But now the bus was quite full. Again a silent journey back to Mysore, but with a feeling of satisfaction. By 8 pm we were in Mysore.

I am not basically from Mysore and initially as many of us, thought that it was a very boring place. But now I feel that there are many such sight seeing spots in and around this place, which I think would have missed if I were not in Mysore. So please don’t complain and enjoy your stay in Mysore. Good Bye.