Yesterday evening was like most others. After a day of sightseeing, I laid on the bed with a pillow rolled up under my head, reading until I lost focus on the story. As per usual when that happens, I went out for a stroll. There’s no point in thinking I might go to sleep early. Indian hotels must be the noisiest in the world. Why not, in a country where people routinely stay up after 11 socializing, and where there is so little privacy anyway? The kids even play late into the night. “Late” is relative. It’s me who is attached to early to bed and early to rise.
Sravanabelagola is a largely Jain town. Very straight. No alcohol, or at least I don’t find a bar or liquor store. Nobody’s smoking in public, except at the bus station. The people here are very friendly and polite. It’s much cleaner than most Indian towns. There’s even an almost continuous sidewalk the length of one side of main street, and it appears work is in progress on the the other side. I don’t know what they’ll do when they get to the middle of town where all the stalls are almost out to the street. Eminent domain? Probably. Permanent structures? For sure, this place will grow up just as the rest of India is.
After my stroll out of town in the dark under a sliver of a moon, I retured to my room to read again but didn’t feel like it. So I just laid there and listened to the kids scream and run in the halls. No carpetting in Indian hotels. My late night musings turned to Comparative Hotel Rooms, a subject in which I’ve become an expert in recent years. One first thought I had when I went into this room was, “Holy cow, the bed has a bottom and a top sheet!”.Oh, no, there’s only a bottom sheet that doesn’t reach the head of the mattress. That makes sense. If the sheets you have are too short, it’s probably better to expose the head of the mattress. Sandalled or bare feet get so filthy here, the foot of the mattress would be black in no time. Better to have oily matresses than street filth. Oily mattresses and pillows creep me out, but this mattress is clean. It even looks pretty new. The pillow’s fine. I’m fine. I’m actually fine with almost everything. The phrase almost everyone who comes here says when something is off is, “This is India”.
This whole place was exceptionally clean. The floors shine. The windows are almost clean. the bathroom’s nice, though the faucet next to the toilet for filling the cup used for cleaning your bottom drips. It’s all consistent with the general wholesomeness of this Jain operated establishment. Not that many places are this nice for 135 rupees ($3) per night.
The main attraction and money earner in Sravanabelagola is a 17.5 meter high monolithic granite statue of a Jain deity, Bahubali. The story goes that Bahubali’s father, an emporor in the 10th century and a revered Jain teacher, died. Bahubali competed with his brother for control of the kingdom till Bahubali realised the futility of the struggle, renounced his claim, and meditated in the forest till he attained enlightenment. Jain holy men wear no clothes as a symbol of their oneness with nature and the cosmos. This staute has him standing naked with vines growing up his body, an anthill forming around his feet, and various snakes and such looking up and admiring him.
You have to walk up these 620 steps barefoot to see it. It’s not recommended for feet that are only used to carpets.