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1864.] Literary Intelligence. 209 



and below the ghats, their head-quarters being at Halebid where there 

 is a splendidly carved temple. It is fifteen miles from Hassan. These 

 Jain Rajas fell before the followers of Shankar Acharya aiid the Vais- 

 navas about 800 years ago, the last Jain Baja having deserted his 

 faith and become a believer in Vishnu, taking the name of Vishnu 

 Vardhana. The head of the Smartas, the Sringagiri Swami, is now 

 supreme in the Malnad country. However, Jains are still found in 

 great numbers, and, in the remoter parts, the Heggades or Potails 

 are generally of that faith, so that it is not unusual to find in a 

 village a Jain Basti, as the covered-in temples are called, with a large 

 standing image of one of the twenty-four personifications. The pre- 

 sent principal seat of the Jain religion is Sravana Belgul, about fifty 

 miles north of Mysore, where there is a colossal statue of Gomatesh- 

 war hewn out of the summit of a hill, and looking northwards over 

 the country. It is about forty-five feet high, and, though too broad 

 in the shoulder and arms, is a fine figure. The legs are dwarfed, owing 

 I presume to the figure having been undertaken on so gigantic a scale, 

 that great expense would have been entailed by carving the lower 

 extremities down to their full length. In the " Basti," in the centre 

 of which this image stands, there are seventy-two figures about three 

 feet high, all of black stone, representing the different attributes of 

 the divinity, each on its own vahana or vehicle. I incline to think 

 that if the history of the Jains in the western part of Mysore were 

 methodically taken up and investigated, it would be an interesting 

 subject of research. There are few literate men in the hills ; and the 

 Brahmins are very ignorant regarding all inscriptions, as an instance 

 of which I may mention, that when at Kalas, near the sources of 

 the Tungabhadra river, I enquired whether there were in the Devas- 

 than there any incised slabs, and was answered in the negative ; but 

 on visiting it in the evening, I found twenty-six stone Shasanas in 

 Canarese (one of Salivahan 1132), one in Devanagari and two on 

 copper plates. This part of the country is, however, very wild, and, 

 so far as I could ascertain, no European had been to G-angamul (the 

 sources of the Tungabhadra) for twenty years before my visit. There 

 is a proverb that the Kalas Magani (Taluk) is a country of 3000 

 pagodas, 6000 hills, and 12,000 devils. The scenery in it is very fine. 



