Overview
A thirty-nine foot Bahubali monolith on Ratnagiri hill beside one of Karnataka's most visited pilgrimage complexes. It is modern, carved between 1967 and 1973. Sect: Digambara statue, within a Hindu temple town.
History
Carved 1967 to 1973 by the sculptor Renjala Gopalkrishna Shenoy under the patronage of Ratnavarma Heggade, from a single rock, weighing around 175 tonnes.
Spiritual Significance
Dharmasthala is included because of an arrangement found almost nowhere else: a Hindu temple to Manjunatha, administered for generations by a Jain family, the Heggades, with a Digambara Bahubali colossus on the hill above. The Bahubali statue receives its own Mahamastakabhisheka. Anyone expecting a conventional Jain tirtha should understand the shape of the place first: the Jain element is real, modern, and set within a predominantly Hindu pilgrimage town.
Pilgrimage Information
Getting there and getting in. Reached by a climb of about twenty minutes up Ratnagiri hill, or by road. Shelters and drinking water are provided. Jain temples of this rank commonly prohibit leather articles, restrict photography, and expect bathing before worship. Where this page does not state a restriction, it is because no source documented one for this particular site, not because none applies. Confirm on arrival.
Preservation
Protection status. None, being a twentieth-century installation.
Sources
- Dharmasthala Temple other
About this page
Researched and written by YatraBeyond from published sources, and not yet confirmed by the temple. Facts here are cross-checked against at least two independent sources, never written from memory, and every source is listed above.
Last reviewed by us: 2026-09-17. Timings, entry rules and access can change without notice; treat anything time-sensitive as a starting point and confirm before you travel.
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