Monday, August 15, 2005

Gomata


This one is for you San Nakji!
This is the whole statue of Gomateshwara.
My impression: I had heard so much about the statue, about it being huge, about it being the tallest monolith in the whole of Asia that I had a mental image of the statue before I went there. I was to be disappointed. The statue is 58 feet tall but I did not find it as huge as I thought it would be.
Also, I could not take a better picture and that irritated me. The enclosure inside which the statue is placed is very small and there is no elevated place to take a picture. So I am not satisfied with the picture.
It is worth a visit, just remember not to be carried away by the legend and the stories surrounding it like I was.

3 comments:

San Nakji said...

A bit rude ;-) pretty big though!

Deepa Bhasthi said...

the Jains have two sects of nuns and saints called Digambara and Shwethambara. the former go nude and the latter wear the most minimal clothes. in India, clothes were never too high on the agenda until the British decided they needed to 'civilize' the natives. it is believed that to go on the true spiritual path, you need to discard physical modesty, sort of symbolising that you can be completely nude before god! so it is very common to see unclothed statues in India.

San Nakji said...

Old European statues too. We are products of Victorian modesty unfortunately...
I really like the Jains, they are cool!