It is as massive as it comes.
It is 32 feet long and more than 180 tonnes in weight. This is nothing but a
huge Koira granite rock which has been transported all the way from a granite quarry
in Doddaballapur which comes in Chikaballapur district to a village near Udupi.
The sheer weight and bulk of
the rock is so much that it needed a 120 wheeled truck with pneumatic brakes
and flat bed surface to transport it over road for over 460 kilometres.
The huge truck was the cynosure
of all eyes and of course whosoever was using the road at that time as the
massive rig wended is way slowly and surely along the National Highway
The rock is a single one and the
massive three trailer train carrying it passed through the towns of Tumkur, Chitradurga,
Davangere, Hubli, Yellapura, Ankola, Kumta, Honnavara, Bhatkal and Kundapur
before finally reaching a small village eleven kilometers from the famous
Madhwa temple town of Udupi.
The massive stone laid on
three carriages or trailers, each with 40 wheels, left Doddaballapur on July 29
and reached Udupi on August 20, which was almost a month long journey.
The rock reached Kunjargiri
Hill, near Udupi where it will finally rest. It was near Kunjargiri that
Madhwacharya, the famous pioneer and propagator of the Dwaitha system was born (Pajaka
Kshetra) sometime in 1197.
The Palimar Matha, which is
one of the eight or Astha Mathas that Madhwacharya founded to look after the
Sri Krishna Matha in Udupi had decided to install a 32 feet statue of Madhwacharya
at the top of the Kunjargiri Hill.
The monolithic statue of Madhwacharya
is being sculpted from a single rock at a cost of Rs. 1.50 crores.
Kunjargiri is the place where
Madhwacharya was brought up and also where he spent his childhood and early
years. The present pontiff of Palimaru Matha, Vidyadheesha Theertha, was
instrumental in conceiving this project.
Before the rock reached its
destination, it was given a ceremonial welcome at Karavali junction on National
Highway 66 by Raghupathi Bhat, the manager of
Palimar Matha and hundreds of devotees.
Pooje was also done to the
rock at the famous Anegudde Sri
Vinayaka Temple
The statue would be installed
atop a eight-feet-high and 80-tonne peetha that is being readied at Kunjargiri
hill. The statute is being sculpted by national award winning sculptor Ashok
Gudigar.
The statue would be sculpted
as per the rules laid down in Tantrasara Sangraha, a work by Madhwacharya
himself.
The Sangraha is an excellent
book on worship. It has an exclusive chapter devoted to sculpture and
installation of idols. It is a small work though comprising of 420 slokas.
(There is another book by the
same name and it is by Abhinava Gupta, a Shaivite scholar in the tenth century. It deals with topics
such as: Tantric spiritual practice, the nature of the ultimate reality,
consciousness, the creative energy underlying all manifestation).
Sri Madhwacharya was born in
Pajaka Kshetra about 14 km from Udupi. He spent his childhood at Kunjargiri. It
is at this place that a 80-tonne peetha
is being created for placing the statue and it is in final stages.
Initially, the stone was 300
tonnes its size but it had to be reduced to 180 tonnes to permit its transport.
Ashok Gudigar from Sagar will be assisted by 20 sculptors to sculpt the statue.
By the way, the rock is called
Koira as it comes from Koira village near Doddaballapur. The rock here is
slightly grayish in colour. As far as Gudigar is concerned, he is an expert at
sculpting statues. Gudigar and his team plan
to complete the work within ten months
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