KANCHEEPURAM: Religious zeal scaled new heights in Pulaiampakkam, some 15 km east of Kancheepuram, as a colossal 32-foot Lord Hanuman statue was sculpted out of a single piece of stone in a record time of 10 months. The statue carved out of a huge bedrock unearthed in Siruthamur hilly terrains, and sculpted by Sthapathi Ramakrishnan, is currently on its way to Thiruvonamangalam near Kumbakonam where it would be christened as Vishwaroopa Sankatagara Mangala Maruthi (Sri Anjaneya Swamy). The Yantra Prathista (installation of specially designed copper plate with special inscriptions of mantras) would be conducted on June 12 by 25 religious scholars during special homams held for the occasion.Once installed, a temple for Sri Anjaneya Swamy would be erected at an estimated cost of `5 crore, said S Ramani Anna, founder of Visva Samarakhshana Maruti Seva Ashrama Trust. Ramani Anna said the place where the temple would come up in one-and-a-half years had been in the bygone generations a Gnanapuri (holy domain), and the five-and-a-half-acre site was identified to him by the Anjaneya Swamy himself in his dreams.Anna said the 60-tonne statue was a first of its kind in the sense that it had been sculpted in such a way that the monkey god is tucking the four topmost Sitha herbs — Vishala Karani, Santhana Karani, Savarna Karani and Mrutha Sanjeevini — under his waist, and his back side is also accomplished to perfection.Anna clarified that the four valuable herbs are found in the rainforests of Kerala even to this date, but the difficulty arose in distinguishing them. While first three herbs are for the treatment of bone injury, injury caused by arrow piercing, and for the wounds of the flesh respectively, the fourth Mrutha Sanjeevini is meant for resurrecting the dead. Meanwhile, the temple is modeled to be the “Roga Nivarthi Shethram”, a centre of panacea for all ills.The temple would also serve banana leaf lunch to all visitors irrespective of caste or creed on a daily basis after the Kumbhabhishekham.
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