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Chikmagalur Trip – Part IV: Shravanabelagola
[Continued from Part III here] I think a little background is in order to understand what we sometimes see in front of our eyes during our travels. My humble attempt at a condensed explanation of Jainism follows: Jainism is one of the oldest religions in the world, believed to have originated from India. Followers of this religion do not believe in a god in the strictest meaning of the term, there is no single all-powerful entity that has the power to control the universe. To Jains, the universe has no starting point in time and will remain for ever- all living beings go through a continuous cycle of life and…
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Chikmagalur Trip – Part II: On to Mullayanagiri
[Continued from Part I here] Mullayanagiri, standing at 1930 metres is supposed to be the highest peak in between the Himalayas and the Nilgiris. Although with over a hundred mountains exceeding 7200 metres in height (3.7 times that of Mullayanagiri), the Himalayas are miles above (ignore the stupid pun) the Western Ghats. On a tangential note, here is an interesting question I was once asked about why people cannot simply take a helicopter ride to the highest peaks in the Himalayas. The answer involves physics. Helicopters rise by pushing the air down using their rotor blades. So when the rotor blades push a lot of air down, at a certain…
