After the Statue of Unity in Gujarat, now comes the Statue of Equality, in Telangana.
A 216 feet Ramanujacharya statue made of pancha-loha, installed at Muchintal near Hyderabad would be “dedicated to the world” on February 5, to mark the 1,000 years since the birth of the Hindu reformist saint.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to attend the event. The Statue of Equality is located near the Hyderabad international airport at Shamshabad and about 3 kilometres east of the Hyderabad-Bengaluru highway.
Ramanujacharya, born in 1017 in Sriperambadur in present-day Tamil Nadu, was a proponent of Sri-Vaishnavism. He propagated that everyone, irrespective of the caste they are born in and creed they follow, is equal in the eyes of God. His life and teachings are said to have inspired the Bhakti movement, and also leaders like Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr BR Ambedkar.
Bhadravedi, the platform on which Ramanuja's statue is in a sitting posture, is 54 feet high, three-storied and shaped like Sri-yantra. The padma-peetham is 27 feet high, with 36 elephants and 108 lotus-leaf structures. The tridandam (a sacred flag stick) itself is 153 feet in length and is 60,000 kg in weight. The nose is six feet in height.
Ramanuja statue is encircled by the replicas of 108 sacred shrines across the country like Tirupati, Srirangm, Dwaraka, Badrinath known as divya-deshas, the seer is stated as having visited in his lifetime. 108 steps take to the statue' base.
A 54 inch, 120 kg pure gold statue of Ramanuja would be installed one floor below, for daily rituals. 120 kgs is to mark the 120 years that the saint is said to have lived.
“The gold idol is a replica of the mega statue above,” Ahobila Jeeyar Swamy told DH, explaining the unique features of the complex, spread in 45 acres.
According to Tridandi China Jeeyar Swamy, a popular ascetic who conceived the project, the Statue of Equality and the 12-day Sahasrabdhi-samaroham beginning Wednesday is to commemorate Sri Ramanuja's samatha-sandesh, “the message of equality to keep us all united together.”
“A millennium after, disparities are still prevailing, societal harmony is missing. These are the diseases more dangerous than Covid-19. With his concept of samatha-samanatha, Ramanuja had handed us a vaccine for such ills. We need to accept that vaccine again, renewing the spirit of his philosophies once again now,” Swamy said.
A yagam of 12 days – named Sri Lakshmi Narayana Maha yagna - would be conducted, using 1.5 lakh litres of ghee. “This yagna is to alleviate Covid-19 effect and also to free us from other viruses like hatred, inequality,” Chinna Jeeyar says.
While the land, near Hyderabad international airport, was donated by a real estate firm, the project costing over Rs 1,000 crore is built entirely with donations, organisers said.
Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao is a known follower of Chinna Jeeyar and the government is providing all possible support for the mega ceremony.
Once completed, the complex would have an exhibition of Ramanuja's life and events, a digital library of all vedic scriptures, augmentative reality, laser shows etc.,
The Statue of Unity at Kevadia, Gujarat is a tribute to Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel, the country's first deputy PM and home minister, who was instrumental in integrating over 550 princely states with India, following independence from the British.
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