Shravanabelagola is a city located in the Hassan district, in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is one of the most important Jain pilgrim centers. In Kannada language, "Bel" means white and "kola", the pond, an allusion to the beautiful pond in the middle of the town. It reached a high point in architectural and sculptural activity under the patronage of Gangas of Talakad.

There are two hills Chandragiri (Chikkabetta) and Vindyagiri at Shravanbelagola. The Vindhyagiri hill is home to a thousand-year-old gigantic 17.38 meter high monolithic stone statue of the Bhagavan Gomateshwara Bahubali, considered to be the world's largest, built by Chamundaraya, a general of King Gangaraya. Every 12 years, thousands of devotees congregate here to perform the Mahamastakabhisheka, a spectacular ceremony in which the thousand-year-old statue is anointed with milk, curd, ghee, saffron and gold coins. The next Mahamastakabhisheka will be held in 2018 A.D.

More than 800 inscriptions are found at Shravanabelagola dating from various points during the period from 600 to 1830 CE. A large number of these are found in the Chandragiri, and the rest can be seen in the Indragiri and the town. Most of the inscriptions at the Chandragiri date back to before the 10th century. The inscriptions include text in the Kannada, Sanskrit, Tamil, Marathi, Marwari and Mahajani languages.

Shravanabelagola is the seat of the ancient Bhattaraka Math, belonging to the Desiya Gana lineage of Mula Sangh, from the Digambar monstic tradition. The Bhattarakas are all named Charukirti. Shravanabelegola is 158 km from Bangalore. There are no direct buses from Hassan or Belur but lond distance direct buses are available from Bengaluru and Mysore. Source:wikipedia.