There are rock mountains on the north and south sides of the square pond, but the one on the south side is larger, and it has a Gomateshvara statue on top. It seems to express the Jain belief of non-possession, and the statue is naked. The male genitals are visible, and it is said that vines grew on it because it stood there meditating for many years, and the pattern of the vines is still there.
This rock mountain is about 150 meters high, but since it is a temple, you must climb it barefoot or with socks. Indians climb it barefoot, and some foreigners also climb it barefoot, but it might have been difficult during the day when the rocks were heated by the sun.
Since it was still early morning, there were few worshippers/tourists, and the rocks were not yet heated, so it wasn't very painful.
When I look at the photos of "SHORT ESCAPES from Bengaluru" in the Lonely Planet guidebook I have, the photos show that there is nothing around this statue. However, when I visited this time, the area around the statue was surrounded by what appeared to be ruins, so it is possible that the ruins around it were recently built.
The view was quite nice.
The statue was impressive, but it didn't quite match my taste.
This place, even for South India, had a lot of people trying to get customers, and there were quite a few people trying to get me to buy souvenirs. I peeked into a souvenir shop, but the prices were high, so I didn't buy anything.
The view was good, and even though the statue wasn't to my taste, it was decent in itself. However, the contrast between this "nothingness" Jain holy site and the souvenir shops, which are full of material possessions, was also interesting.
I heard that devout Jains don't wear clothes, but I didn't see anyone like that. It's probably not surprising that I didn't see anyone on this day, considering that only 0.4% of the Indian population are Jains. But this is supposed to be a holy site... I looked it up a little, and it seems that many Jains are wealthy. They are rich despite the teachings of "not owning anything." India is an amazing country. It's exactly like the Indian Tourism Bureau's slogan, "Incredible India."
