After our college, it was our first formal outing. 6 of us set out to salute the ultimate symbol of Vairagya.. Bahubali. I had newly bought my camera then and this was a nice opportunity to experiment on it. We left Bangalore early at about 7am and reached shravanabelagola by around 10am. We all first visited the doddabetta(vindhyagiri) to salute Bahubali.
He holds a very special position in the Jain culture. No other kevalin has a temple. There are temples built for the thirthankaras. But bahubali is considered only as a kevali(one who attained kaivalya). It is undoubtedly because of his sacrifice that he holds such a position. He had the whole world under his feet. The chakra which had conquered the whole world, was standing like a tamed cat beside him. But his eyes were set onto something eternal. All the materialistic pleasures of this world seemed worthless to him. Truly.. even the 57 feet huge structure falls short in symbolizing the great personality.
After that, we visited the chikkabetta(chandragiri), where it is believed that chandragupta maurya spent his last days. The chikkabetta has more than 20 jain basadis on it. After visiting all of them, had lunch in the shade of a boulder. Relaxed for a while and left for bangalore by about 3:30.
The thing we enjoyed the most was sliding on the slide (jaara bandi) formed by smooth rock. Strangely the doddabetta had a small slide and the chikkabetta had a bigger one. The bigger one was more thrilling and exciting. For more photos, click here.
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