Preparations are on full swing for the unveiling of “Statue of Equality,” the 216-ft statue of 11th century Vaishnavaite saint Sri Ramanujacharya on the 40-acre sprawling premises of Sri Chinna Jeeyar Swamy ashram at Muchintal village on the outskirts of Hyderabad on February 5.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has agreed in principle to unveil the statue as per the request of Jeeyar who met him on September 20. The finer details of the Prime Minister’s visit are being worked out,” Education Trust official Suryanarayana Yellapragada told HT.
President Vice-President M Venkaiah and several other dignitaries from across the globe were also invited for the inaugural function, which would be presided over by Telangana chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao. On Tuesday, Chinna Jeeyar Swamy met Tamil Nadu Governor RN Ravi and extended him an invite for the inaugural ceremony.
minister V who inspected the arrangements for the statue unveiling ceremony at the Chinna Jeeyar ashram on Sunday, confirmed that the prime minister would be unveiling the statue of Vaishnavaite saint Ramanujacharya.
“The works are going at a brisk pace. Internal roads are being laid and power infrastructure works are nearing completion. It is going to be a spiritual hub or the entire world and a major tourist destination for people across the world,” Goud said.
According to Yellapragada, the Statue of Equality, is the second tallest in seated position depicting Saint Ramanujacharya and was built to commemorate the 1,000 years of his birth. The total cost of the project is around ₹1,000 crore.
“The 11th century saint, who fought against discrimination of people in the name of caste, colour and creed, propounded the theory of Vishishtadvaitha (qualified dualism), which says the God exists in all living beings,” he said.
The 216-ft panchaloha statue, made of five metals – gold, silver, copper, brass and tin – was erected in 2017 itself, but it took four years for the completion of works on the other constructions.
According to chief sculptor DNV Prasad, the statue of Saint Ramanujacharya in the seated position has been positioned on a huge lotus built over a three-storied 54-ft structure called Bhadravedi. The ground floor comprising 63,444 square feet area will have a pictorial presentation providing glimpses of Ramanujacharya’s life and his philosophy.
In the second floor, there is a temple of Ramanujacharya in nearly 300,000 sq ft area, where a 120 kg gold statue of him will be installed for daily worship. And on the last floor of 14,700 sq ft, there will be a Vedic digital library and research centre.
Outside the Bhadravedi, the statue will be surrounded by 108 Divya Desa Kshetras (Vaishnavite temples located across the country) built in stone in a 34-acre land around the statue.
To give the project a universal appeal, ashram authorities are also contemplating installation of flags belonging to all the countries in the world, including Islamic countries. “There is no discrimination of people based on their religion and region. We want to tell the entire world through this project that all human beings are equal, irrespective of the religions they practise and ways of life they lead,” Prasad said.
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