ABSTRACT
During my stay in Mysore, I made an excursion thirty miles north of Seringapatam, to examine a huge statue of solid granite, nearly seventy feet in height, at a place with a name almost as long as the statue itself—Snrivanabalagol. It is wonderful how indifferent most people, living on any given spot of the earth’s surface, become to the sights in their immediate neighbourhood; for when I asked at the Mysore residency for information about this extraordinary colossal statue, which lies within one night’s journey, I found the greater number of the party had never seen it; nor could I prevail on any person to accompany me on the expedition. I set out, accordingly, alone, about sunset, went to bed in my palankeen, and never awoke till the bearers set me down, next morning, on the pavement of a choultry near the spot. As I could see nothing of the statue, however, for an intervening grove of trees, I ran to the corner of the wood, where I suddenly obtained a view of this astonishing work of art, standing up boldly against the sky, and shewing itself above a low range of intermediate hills.
