Bahubali (Amar Chitra Katha) Vol. 683

Bahubali's is a two-fold story: of the son of the first of 24 prophets of the Jains and of his statue of ten times man's height sculpted in granite. The first prophet was a king who made Bahubali's brother Bharata his successor to the throne and renounced the world. Bahubali's brother, driven by the ambition to be the supreme ruler, subdued all kings including his brothers other than Bahubali. Bahubali had also renounced the world but faced by his brother for a combat, agreed to a one-on-one wrestling match. Bahubali won but he gave the kingdom won as trophy, back to his brother. This supreme renunciation has won for Bahubali eternal praise and a place among the worshipped. In the 10th century, an old Jain lady expressed the wish to see Bahubali in physical form. Her son Chavundaraya, the general of a king got made the huge statue on a hill in Karnataka. The vine that entwines the body of the statue symbolically depicts the number of years that Bahubali meditated.