Shravanabelagola

Shravanabelagola is a Jain pilgrimage town in Karnataka in southern India, set between the Chandragiri and Vindhyagiri hills. Tradition holds that the sage Bhadrabahu and his pupil Chandragupta Maurya, founder of the Mauryan empire, meditated on Chandragiri, where the former emperor is said to have died around 298 BCE after taking Jain ascetic vows.

On Vindhyagiri stands the fifty-eight-foot monolithic statue of Gommateshwara, also called Bahubali, commissioned in 981 by Chavundaraya, general of the Western Ganga kings of Talakad.

Under Western Ganga and later Hoysala patronage the town accumulated more than five hundred Jain inscriptions, as well as temples including the Akkana Basadi and the Chandragupta Basadi. Every twelve years devotees gather for the Mahamastakabhisheka, anointing the statue with water, turmeric, sandalwood paste and gold and silver flowers.