ANANTAPUR: A 108ft-long Lord Srirama, tipped to be the biggest stone statue in the country, will be erected in Mantralayam temple town. Digital technology will be used to carve out the statue. The exclusive project is estimated to cost Rs 6 crore.
“As per legend, Lord Sriram was on his way to Lanka in search of Goddess Sita and took shelter in this area. Sri Raghvendra Swamy had chosen a place to set up his Brindavan stone, which is where the Lord took rest," Mantralayam mutt pontiff Sri Subudendra Theertha Swami told DC.
The mutt had procured a single stone from Kodagarlagutta area in Rolla mandal of Sri Satya Sai district two months ago for this purpose and shifted the stone through a special vehicle to the spot where the statue would be set up.
An expert team from the coastal area was given the work to carve the statue by using digital technology. The agency had prepared a 9ft statue by using this technology. The same design was approved by the pontiff to carve the 108ft statue.
In addition, this was an area hit seriously by floods and unable to recoup from huge loss to structures for a long time. Later, the temple town - Mantralayam - witnessed massive development in the form of new structures. After the Tungabhadra floods, Sri Raghavendra Swamy Mutt helped in the development of the area.
The devotees of the Lord include former MP Rangan Gowd of Karnataka, Infosys founder Sudha Murthy and several dignitaries across the southern states, who were all involved in the development of the mutt.
The mutt's entry gopuram and the premises of Moola Brindavan were flooded at 9ft level and caused massive damage in the past.
In the past decade, at least `50 crore worth of developmental activities were completed while `26 crore worth of projects were ongoing at various levels in the mutt premises, sources said.
Rangan Gowd donated funds for construction of the entrance. He already constructed the bhojan shala. Further, the plan is for widening of the front side of the mutt till the main road and carving of historic structures by installation of historic notes and statues to highlight the scenes from epics with attractive lighting.
Mutt pontiff, Sri Subhudendra Theertha Swami, said the devotees were involved voluntarily in the development to shape this as an iconic spot.
A big museum on the epics and human evolution set up adjacent to the mutt has been an attraction and spreading awareness among the devotees. It has pictures and descriptions in Telugu, Kannada and English languages.
The Mantralayam Dasa Sahitya project special officer Appannacharya told DC, “More than 300 exclusive pictures of Dasa Sahitya can be seen in the museum soon after the darshan of Moola Birndavan of Raghavendra Swamy.''
The mutt draws devotees from across AP, TN, TS, Karnataka and other parts of the country.
The mutt is also planning to reshape the Tungbabhadra river ghat by diverting the river separately to set up a bathing ghat. Sources said Infosys founder Sudha Murthy has reacted positively to the proposal. Another plan is to build an underground drainage system for the temple town.
