Phespirit goes to India
tour     February/March 2005

KARNATAKA COLOSSUS

A Jain priest does holy things by the feet of the tallest unsupported monolith in India.

Standing 58' in height, the granite statue of Gomateshvara at Sravanabelgola is so vast that solely his feet fit into this photograph.

[NOTE: of its kind, only Rameses II in Egypt is taller.]

KARNATAKA CONSTRUCTION

Among the secular giants of Karnataka the undisputed star is the Mysore Palace

Construction work was inaugurated in 1897 during the regency period of Her Highness, the Maharani Vanivilasa Sannidhana, after the old palace had been destroyed by fire.

Fifteen years later it was finished, thus.

KARNATAKA COUNTRY

Out of town, in the wilds of Coorg, grandeur gives way to simplicity.

This is coffee country, with plantations right and left, and a little auto-rickshaw puttering along the narrow roads in between.