At 216 feet, statue of Vaishnavite saint to enter record books
HYDERABAD: If Gujarat is going to get into the record books with the ‘Statue of Unity’ — a 597ft statue of the first home minister of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, on the banks of river Narmada, Telangana, too, will soon have the world’s second tallest statue in a seated posture.
The 216-ft metallic statue of Vaishnavite saint Sri Ramanujacharya, called the ‘Statue of Equality’, will come up in a sprawling 40-acre space on the premises of Sri Tridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swamy ashram at Muchintal village, close to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on the outskirts of Hyderabad. The erection of the statue is nearing completion and other work around it is in progress.
“The first phase of the project, comprising the main statue of Sri Ramanujacharya, the ‘parikrama’ and the temple, will be completed by March 2018. PM Narendra Modi has agreed in principle to unveil it in April,” said Devanatha Swamy, disciple of Chinna Jeeyar Swamy.
Swamy said that the ₹1,000 crore project was taken up as part of the Shasrabdi (1,000th anniversary) celebrations of Sri Ramanucharya, who was born in 1017 and lived for 120 years, propagating the Hindu philosophy of Vishishtadwaita (qualified non-dualism).
“It was Ramanujacharya who fought against discrimination in the name of caste, colour and creed. That is why we have decided to call it the Statue of Equality,” he said.
The statue will be made of ‘panchaloha’ (an alloy of five metals — gold, silver, copper, brass, and tin/lead) and will be the second tallest statue in the world (the first being the 302-ft statue of Buddha in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand).
“We could have had the taller statue but the Airports Authority of India had given clearance of only up to 216 ft, since it is close to the Hyderabad airport,” he added.