Shravanabelagola
Encyclopedia
Shravana Belgola is a city located in the Hassan district
in the India
n state of Karnataka
and is 158 km from Bangalore
. The statue of Gommateshvara Bahubali
at Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa is one of the most important pilgrimage destinations
in Jainism
, one that reached a peak in architectural and sculptural activity under the patronage of Western Ganga Dynasty of Talakad
.
in the Channarayapatna taluk of Hassan district
of Karnataka
. It is at a distance of 51 km south-east of Hassan, the district centre. It is situated at a distance of 12 km to the south from the Bangalore-Mangalore road (NH-48)
, 78 km from Halebidu
, 89 km from Belur
, 83 km from Mysore, 233 km from Mangalore
, 17 km from Hirisave
and 157 km from Bangalore
, the capital of Karnataka.
" is named with reference to the colossal image of Gommaṭa - the prefix Śravaṇa serves to distinguish it from other Belgolas with the prefixes Hale- and Kodi-, while Beḷgoḷa "white pond" is an allusion to the beautiful pond in the middle of the town. The Sanskrit
equivalents Svetasarovara, Dhavalasarovara and Dhavalasaras used in the inscriptions that support this meaning.
Some inscriptions mention the name of the place as Beḷguḷa, which has given rise to another derivation from the plant Solanum ferox
or Hairy-Fruited Eggplant. This derivation is in allusion to a tradition which says that a pious old woman completely anointed the colossal image with the milk brought by her in a gullakayi or eggplant. The place is also designated as Devara Beḷgoḷa "White Pond of the God" and Gommaṭapuram "city of Gommaṭa" in some epigraphs. The epithet Dakshinakasi "Southern Kasi" is applied to it in some modern records.
and Vindhyagiri
. Acharya Bhadrabahu
and his pupil Chandragupta Maurya
are believed to have meditated there. Chandragupta Basadi, which was dedicated to Chandragupta Maurya, was originally built there by Ashoka
in the third century BC. Chandragiri also has memorials to numerous monks and Śrāvaka
s who have meditated there since the fifth century AD, including the last king of the Rashtrakuta dynasty
of Manyakheta
. Chandragiri also has a famous temple built by Chavundaraya
, who was a disciple of Nemichandra
.
The 57-feet tall monolithic statue of Gommateshvara is located on Vindyagiri Hill. It is considered to be the world's largest monolithic stone statue. The base of the statue has an inscriptions in Kannada and Tamil
, as well as the oldest evidence of written Marathi
, dating from 981 AD. The inscription praises the king who funded the effort and his general, Chavundaraya, who erected the statue for his mother. Every twelve years, thousands of devotees congregate here to perform the Mahamastakabhisheka
, a spectacular ceremony in which the statue is covered with milk, curds, ghee
, saffron
and gold coins. The next Mahamastakabhisheka will be held in 2018.
More than 800 inscriptions have been found at Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa, dating to various times from 600 to 1830. A large number of these are found in the Chandragiri and the rest can be seen in the Indragiri and the town. Most of the inscriptions at the Chandragiri date back before the 10th century. These inscriptions include texts in the Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil, Marathi, Konkani, Marwari and Mahajani languages. The second volume of Epigraphia Carnatica
, written by B. Lewis Rice, is dedicated to the inscriptions found here.
The inscriptions are written in various Halagannada (Old Kannada) and Purvahalagannada (Pre-Old Kannada) characters. Some of these inscriptions mention the rise and growth in power of the Western Ganga Dynasty, the Rashtrakutas, the Hoysala Empire
, the Vijayanagar Empire and the Wodeyar dynasty. These inscriptions have helped modern scholars to understand the nature and development of the Kannada language and its literature.
On August 5, 2007, the statue of Shravanbelagola was voted by the readers of Times of India (an English Daily) as the first of the Times of India's list of seven Wonders of India. 49% votes went in favor of the statue.
Matha
, belonging to the Desiya Gana lineage of Mula Sangh
, from the Digambara
monstic tradition. The Bhattarakas are all named Charukirti. Bahubali College of Engineering is a educational institute at Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa.
The matha and derasar
are situated at base of Vindhyagiri paravat.
Sri kalika devi temple
and
Sri Eshwara devasthana
Hassan district
Hassan is a district in Karnataka state, India. The district headquarters are Hassan.Hassan district was the seat of the Hoysala Empire which at its peak ruled large parts of south India from Belur as its early capital and Halebidu as its later capital during the period 1000 - 1334 CE...
in the India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n state of Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...
and is 158 km from Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
. The statue of Gommateshvara Bahubali
Bahubali
According to Jainism, Bahubali, called Gomateshwara , was the second of the hundred sons of the first Tirthankara, Rishabha, and king of Podanpur. The Adipurana, a 10th century Kannada text by Jain poet Adikavi Pampa According to Jainism, Bahubali, called Gomateshwara , was the second of the...
at Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa is one of the most important pilgrimage destinations
Tirtha
In Jainism, a tīrtha |ford]], a shallow part of a body of water that may be easily crossed") is used to refer both to pilgrimage sites as well as to the four sections of the sangha...
in Jainism
Jainism
Jainism is an Indian religion that prescribes a path of non-violence towards all living beings. Its philosophy and practice emphasize the necessity of self-effort to move the soul towards divine consciousness and liberation. Any soul that has conquered its own inner enemies and achieved the state...
, one that reached a peak in architectural and sculptural activity under the patronage of Western Ganga Dynasty of Talakad
Talakad
Talakad is a desert-like town on the left bank of the Kaveri river at a spot where the river makes a sharp bend. It is 45 km from Mysore and 133 km from Bangalore in Karnataka, India. A historic site, Talakad once had over 30 temples that today are buried in sand. Now it is a scenic...
.
Location
Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa is located at 13 km to the south-east of ChannarayapatnaChannarayapatna
Channarayapatna is a town in Hassan district in Karnataka, India. It is an administrative headquarters of a taluk of the same name. It is located on the Mangalore–Bangalore National highway 48 in India. It lies at a distance of 148 km from Bangalore and 37 km from the district...
in the Channarayapatna taluk of Hassan district
Hassan district
Hassan is a district in Karnataka state, India. The district headquarters are Hassan.Hassan district was the seat of the Hoysala Empire which at its peak ruled large parts of south India from Belur as its early capital and Halebidu as its later capital during the period 1000 - 1334 CE...
of Karnataka
Karnataka
Karnataka , the land of the Kannadigas, is a state in South West India. It was created on 1 November 1956, with the passing of the States Reorganisation Act and this day is annually celebrated as Karnataka Rajyotsava...
. It is at a distance of 51 km south-east of Hassan, the district centre. It is situated at a distance of 12 km to the south from the Bangalore-Mangalore road (NH-48)
National Highway 48 (India)
National Highway 48 or NH-48, now renamed as NH-75 is a National Highway of India running entirely within the state of Karnataka. It links the coastal city of Mangalore with the state capital Bangalore, two major cities of Karnataka state. NH 48 passes through towns of Nelamangala, Kunigal,...
, 78 km from Halebidu
Halebidu
Halebidu is located in Hassan District, Karnataka, India. Halebidu was the regal capital of the Hoysala Empire in the 12th century. It is home to one of the best examples of Hoysala architecture in the ornate Hoysaleswara and Kedareswara temples. Halebidu literally means ruined city...
, 89 km from Belur
Belur
Belur may refer to any of the following:* Belur, Karnataka, town in Karnataka, India* Belur, West Bengal, India, a locality on the west bank of the Hooghly River* Belur Math, the religious abbey located in Belur, West Bengal, India...
, 83 km from Mysore, 233 km from Mangalore
Mangalore
Mangalore is the chief port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located about west of the state capital, Bangalore. Mangalore lies between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghat mountain ranges, and is the administrative headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada district in south western...
, 17 km from Hirisave
Hirisave
Hirisave is a village in the Hassan district of the state of Karnataka, India. It is near the Jain pilgrimage centre of Shravanabelagola.This is the Junction to Shravanabelagula from Bangalore to Mangalore Highway...
and 157 km from Bangalore
Bangalore
Bengaluru , formerly called Bengaluru is the capital of the Indian state of Karnataka. Bangalore is nicknamed the Garden City and was once called a pensioner's paradise. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the south-eastern part of Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city and...
, the capital of Karnataka.
Etymology
Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa "White Pond of the ShravanaShravana
Shravana is the 22nd nakshatra or lunar mansion as used in Hindu astronomy and astrology. It belongs to the constellation Makara or Capricorn....
" is named with reference to the colossal image of Gommaṭa - the prefix Śravaṇa serves to distinguish it from other Belgolas with the prefixes Hale- and Kodi-, while Beḷgoḷa "white pond" is an allusion to the beautiful pond in the middle of the town. The Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
equivalents Svetasarovara, Dhavalasarovara and Dhavalasaras used in the inscriptions that support this meaning.
Some inscriptions mention the name of the place as Beḷguḷa, which has given rise to another derivation from the plant Solanum ferox
Solanum ferox
Solanum ferox is a species of plant in the Solanaceae family. It is found in Indonesia. Common name in English is Hairy-fruited eggplant....
or Hairy-Fruited Eggplant. This derivation is in allusion to a tradition which says that a pious old woman completely anointed the colossal image with the milk brought by her in a gullakayi or eggplant. The place is also designated as Devara Beḷgoḷa "White Pond of the God" and Gommaṭapuram "city of Gommaṭa" in some epigraphs. The epithet Dakshinakasi "Southern Kasi" is applied to it in some modern records.
History
Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa has two hills, ChandragiriChandragiri Hill
Chandragiri is one of the two hills in Shravanabelagola in the Indian state of Karnataka, the other one being Vindhyagiri.-History:The recorded history surrounding the hill started in 300 BC when Shruthakevali, Bhadrabahu and Chandragupta Maurya visited the place in order to attain religious peace...
and Vindhyagiri
Vindhyagiri Hill
Vindyagiri is one of the two hills in Shravanabelagola in the Indian state of Karnataka. The other one being Chandragiri.-History:The Large Hill is first referred to as "Per kavappu" in 8th Century, but its history begins with that of Gommateshwara in the Late 10th century...
. Acharya Bhadrabahu
Acharya Bhadrabahu
Acharya Bhadrabahu was a Jain monk. He is more famously known as a spiritual teacher of Chandragupta Maurya and author of several texts related to Jainism, including some of the most important works, Upsargahara Stotra and Kalpasutra....
and his pupil Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya , was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in conquering most of the Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and its first genuine emperor...
are believed to have meditated there. Chandragupta Basadi, which was dedicated to Chandragupta Maurya, was originally built there by Ashoka
Ashoka
Ashok Maurya or Ashoka , popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from ca. 269 BC to 232 BC. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over most of present-day India after a number of military conquests...
in the third century BC. Chandragiri also has memorials to numerous monks and Śrāvaka
Sravaka
Shravaka or Śrāvaka or Sāvaka means "hearer" or, more generally, "disciple".This term is used by both Buddhists and Jains. In Jainism, a shravaka is any lay Jain...
s who have meditated there since the fifth century AD, including the last king of the Rashtrakuta dynasty
Rashtrakuta Dynasty
The Rashtrakuta Empire was a royal dynasty ruling large parts of the Indian Subcontinent between the sixth and the 10th centuries. During this period they ruled as several closely related, but individual clans. Rastrakutas in inscriptions represented as descendants of Satyaki, a Yadava well known...
of Manyakheta
Manyakheta
Manyakheta on the banks of Kagina River in Gulbarga district, Karnataka state was the capital of Rashtrakutas from . It is 40 km from Gulbarga city. The capital was moved from Mayurkhandi in Bidar district to Mānyakheṭa during the rule of Amoghavarsha I...
. Chandragiri also has a famous temple built by Chavundaraya
Chavundaraya
Chavundraya was a military commander, poet and a minister in the court of the Western Ganga Dynasty of Talakad . A person of many talents, in 982 he commissioned the Gomateshwara, a monolithic sculpture in Shravanabelagola, an important place of pilgrimage for Jains...
, who was a disciple of Nemichandra
Nemichandra
Nemichandra Siddhanta Chakravarty , was the celebrated author of Dravyasamgraha, Gomattasara , Triloksara, Labdhisara and Kshapanasara. He was among the most distinguished of the Jain Acharyas....
.
The 57-feet tall monolithic statue of Gommateshvara is located on Vindyagiri Hill. It is considered to be the world's largest monolithic stone statue. The base of the statue has an inscriptions in Kannada and Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
, as well as the oldest evidence of written Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
, dating from 981 AD. The inscription praises the king who funded the effort and his general, Chavundaraya, who erected the statue for his mother. Every twelve years, thousands of devotees congregate here to perform the Mahamastakabhisheka
Mahamastakabhisheka
The Mahamasthakabhisheka is an important Jain festival held once every twelve years in the town of Shravanabelagola in Karnataka, India. The festival is held in veneration of an immense 18 meter high statue of the siddha Bahubali...
, a spectacular ceremony in which the statue is covered with milk, curds, ghee
Ghee
Ghee is a class of clarified butter that originated in South Asia and is commonly used in South Asian cuisine....
, saffron
Saffron
Saffron is a spice derived from the flower of Crocus sativus, commonly known as the saffron crocus. Crocus is a genus in the family Iridaceae. Each saffron crocus grows to and bears up to four flowers, each with three vivid crimson stigmas, which are each the distal end of a carpel...
and gold coins. The next Mahamastakabhisheka will be held in 2018.
Inscriptions
Epigraphia Carnatica
Epigraphia Carnatica is a set of books on epigraphy of the Old Mysore region of India, compiled by Benjamin Lewis Rice, the Director of the Mysore Archaeological Department. Over a period of about ten years between 1894 and 1905, Rice published the books in a set of twelve volumes...
, written by B. Lewis Rice, is dedicated to the inscriptions found here.
The inscriptions are written in various Halagannada (Old Kannada) and Purvahalagannada (Pre-Old Kannada) characters. Some of these inscriptions mention the rise and growth in power of the Western Ganga Dynasty, the Rashtrakutas, the Hoysala Empire
Hoysala Empire
The Hoysala Empire was a prominent South Indian Kannadiga empire that ruled most of the modern day state of Karnataka between the 10th and the 14th centuries. The capital of the Hoysalas was initially located at Belur but was later moved to Halebidu....
, the Vijayanagar Empire and the Wodeyar dynasty. These inscriptions have helped modern scholars to understand the nature and development of the Kannada language and its literature.
On August 5, 2007, the statue of Shravanbelagola was voted by the readers of Times of India (an English Daily) as the first of the Times of India's list of seven Wonders of India. 49% votes went in favor of the statue.
Other notable things
Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa is the seat of the ancient BhattarakaBhattaraka
A Bhaṭṭāraka is the head of traditional Jain institutions. They are responsible for training of scholars, maintenance of libraries, managing the endowments, presiding over the installation ceremonies and running of Jain institutions....
Matha
Matha
A matha ) is a term for monastic and similar religious establishments of Hinduism and Jainism. A matha is usually more formal, hierarchical, and rule-based than an ashram.-Advaita Mathas:...
, belonging to the Desiya Gana lineage of Mula Sangh
Mula Sangh
Mula Sangh is an ancient Jain monastic order . Mula literally means the "root" or the original order.Mula-Sangh has been the main Digambar Jain order. Today the Digambar Jain tradition is synonymous with Mula Sangha. The great Acharya Kundakunda is associated with Mula Sangh...
, from the Digambara
Digambara
Digambara "sky-clad" is one of the two main sects of Jainism. "Sky-clad" has many different meaning and associations throughout Indian religions. Many representations of deities within these traditions are depicted as sky-clad, e.g. Samantabhadra/Samantabhadrī in Yab-Yum...
monstic tradition. The Bhattarakas are all named Charukirti. Bahubali College of Engineering is a educational institute at Śravaṇa Beḷgoḷa.
The matha and derasar
Derasar
A derasar is a temple for followers of Jainism, except for non-murtipujak Svetambaras. Derasar is a word used in Gujarat, Kutch and parts of Rajasthan, in other parts of India, the term Jain Mandir is used for all the Jain temples. Jain idols of Tirthankaras are worshipped there...
are situated at base of Vindhyagiri paravat.
See also
- Belur, KarnatakaBelur, KarnatakaBelur is a Town Municipal Council in Hassan district in the state of Karnataka, India.-History:Belur was the early capital of the Hoysala Empire. With Halebidu which is only 16 km away, this is one of the major tourist destinations in Karnataka, India. Belur is located in Hassan district...
- HalebiduHalebiduHalebidu is located in Hassan District, Karnataka, India. Halebidu was the regal capital of the Hoysala Empire in the 12th century. It is home to one of the best examples of Hoysala architecture in the ornate Hoysaleswara and Kedareswara temples. Halebidu literally means ruined city...
Sri kalika devi temple
and
Sri Eshwara devasthana