Page:Castes and Tribes of Southern India, Volume 2.djvu/470

JAIN height of the figure may be stated at 57 feet, though higher estimates have been given — 60 feet 3 inches by Sir Arthur Wellesley (afterwards Duke of Wellington), and 70 feet 3 inches by Buchanan." Of this figure, Fergusson writes * that " nothing grander or more imposing exists anywhere out of Egypt, and even there no known statue surpasses it in height, though, it must be confessed, they do excel it in the perfection of art they exhibit."

Other colossal statues of Gummata are situated on the summit of hills outside the towns of Karkal and Venūr or Yēnūr in South Canara. Concerning the former.Dr. E. Hultzsch writes as follows.† " It is a monolith consisting of the figure itself, of a slab against which it leans, and which reaches up to the wrists, and of a round pedestal which is sunk into a thousand-petalled lotus flower. The legs and arms of the figure are entwined with vines (drâkshâ). On both sides of the feet, a number of snakes are cut out of the slab against which the image leans. Two inscriptions ‡ on the sides of the same slab state that this image of Bahubalin or Gummata Jinapati was set up by a chief named Vira-Pândya, the son of Bhairava, in A.D. 1431-32. An inscription of the same chief is engraved on a graceful stone pillar in front of the outer gateway. This pillar bears a seated figure of Brahmadêva, a chief of Pattipombuchcha, the modern Humcha in Mysore, who, like Vira-Pândya, belonged to the family of Jinadatta, built the Chaturmukha basti in A.D. 1586-87. As its name (chaturmukha, the four-faced) implies, this temple has