Udupi: 32-ft tall statue of Madhwacharya installed at Kunjargiri

Udupi, Mar 29: A 32-ft statue of the exponent of Dwaita philosophy Sri Madhwacharya was installed on a concrete structure at the bottom of the Kunjargiri hillock here on Tuesday.

The installation of the statue is one of the ambitious projects taken up by Vidyadheesha Tirtha Swami of Palimar Mutt. Kunjargiri is about 11 km from Udupi en route Pajaka, the birthplace of Sri Madhwacharya, which is just a couple of kilometres from here. The Sri Durga Devi temple is located atop the Kunjargiri hillock.

The installation of the statue will bring to an end the work which started in August 2013, when a 180-tonne grey granite monolith rock was brought here from a quarry at Koira in Devanahalli village near Bengaluru.

A team of about 10 sculptors under the chief sculptor, Ashok Gudigar, began the work of sculpting the statue of Sri Madhwacharya, which was later carried on by sculptor, Kumar. The sculpting work was completed about two months ago.

A unique feature of this statue is that it has been sculpted as per the 32 parameters laid down in the text, “Tantrasara”, written by Sri Madhwacharya. Besides, the statue, an eight-feet high panipeetha or platform on which the statue has been installed has been sculpted.

The statue was installed on a concrete structure of 40 feet high constructed at the bottom of the hillock. A panipeetha or platform was already placed on the concrete structure. The statue was installed by a team of engineers from Larsen & Toubro Ltd., Chennai.

K.N. Seshagiri, user experience design consultant and artist, who has been supervising the entire work, said that the statue was about 140 ft above the ground.

The concrete structure on which the statue had been installed will be filled with soil and an artificial hillock will be created to reach the statue.

Various small sculptures and places for meditation will be constructed on the way to the statue.

“The cost of sculpting the statue is estimated at about Rs 1 crore. Larsen & Toubro is installing the statue as part of its CSR activity,” Mr. Seshagiri said.

A crane with lifting equipment was brought here on 15 trucks. The material were then reassembled for lifting the statute from the ground to install it on the “panipeetha”.

The weight of the 32-feet statute is 97 tonnes, while that of the panipeetha is 37 tonnes. A religious programme to mark the installation will be held here from May 7 to 10.