Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1875 — A Colossal Statue. [ARTICLE]

A Colossal Statue.

Some mile? from Oollisna, says a writer in Fivt**r't Magazine, lies an ancient seat ©f Jains dominion, Karku), at present a considerable town, with thronged bazaar streets; and a few followers of the van qui&hed religion still reside near the monuments of their departed greatness. Upon the outskirts of the town rises a rocky hill: of generally rounded form, like a basin reversed, approaching 1100 feet in height, its l»ase rough and bushy, the upper slojies smooth and steep. Looking up at tliMtill from a distance the enchanted castles of fairy tales come back to'mind, for on the top is seen a castle-like wall pierced with a wide arched entrance, and adark, gigan tic form towering over it waist-higli. This is one of three colossal statues that are found in this part of the country—statues only Egyptian in size and unrivaled throughout India in detached w orks. On the hill-top a crenelated quadrangular wall incloses a stone platform, five feet high, on which rises the stupendous image forty-five feet in height. Nude, cut from a single pi ass of granite, darkened by the monsoons of centuries, the vast statue stands upright with arms hanging straight, but not awkwardly, down the sides in a posture of somewhat stiff but simple dignity. The lorn and lineaments are evidently the same with those which, from Ceylon to China and utmost Tartary, have handed down with unvarying tradition the habit as he lived of that most wondrous of mortals that ever wore flesh, Buddha Gautama; for assuredly no other mere man ever spread so widely and maintained so long a supreme influence over so many successive millions of souls. Remarkable it is, too, that, though torn in India, the features show* nothing distinctly Hindu. The hair grows in clok*, crisp curls; the broad, fleshy cheeks might make the face seem heavy were it not for the marked and dignified expression conferred by the calm, forward-gazing eyes and aquiline nose, somewhat pointed at tip. The forehead is of average size, the lips very full and thick, the upper one long almost to ugli. ness, throwing the chin, though full and prominent, into the shade. The arms, which touch the body only at Uic hips, are remarkably long, the large, wellformed hands ami fingers reaching to the knees; the exigencies of live posture and material have caused the shoulders, where the arms join, to be rather disproportionately broad and massive. The feet, each four feet nine inches long, rest on a stand wrought from the same rock, that" seems small for the immense size and weight (eighty tons) of the statue; a lotus stem springing at each foot is carried up in low relief twice round each leg and arm. A brief inscription at the side Inflow tells that the image was erected by King Virapandra in 1432 to Bahulbaiiri, son of Yirshaba, and First Tirtliankara, of giant races, himself a giant, and, therefore, so represented, but stiil in the shape of the founder of that faith whence the Jaina heresy diverged. A low cloister runs around the inner side of the inclosing wall, and a massive stone rail of three horizontal bars surrounds the platform. Once in sixty vears the scattered Jains gather from all quarters and bathe the colossus with cocoanut milk.