Saturday, November 2, 2019

Vazhapadi to have world’s tallest statue of Murugan at 145ft

Senthil.Kumaran@timesgroup.com

Salem:2.11.2019

The world’s tallest Murugan statue, at 145 feet, is getting ready in Salem district. Sri Muthumalai Murugar Trust (SMMT) that is building the statue at Puthiragoundampalayam near Vazhapadi said work will be completed before October 2020.

“I got this idea to build the tallest Murugan statue after I came to know about the 140ft Murugan statue in Malaysia,” N Sridhar, chairman of SMMT, told TOI. Not many people can visit Malaysia to worship the deity. “They can easily come to Salem to worship Murugan.”

Sridhar, a businessman from Attur, decided to construct the temple and statue in his own land in 2014. He took nearly two years to initiate the construction process along with sculptor ‘Tiruvarur’ Thiyagarajan, who had constructed the 140ft Murugan statue in Malaysia in 2006.

The trust performed bhoomi puja on March 13, 2016, and named the statue ‘Muthu Malai Murugan’. They will be building Murugan statues in different postures as in the ‘arupadai veedu’ (six abodes) temples: Tirutani, Swamimalai, Palani, Pazhamudhircholai, Tirupparankundram and Tiruchendur.

Around 2 lakh bricks and several thousands of bags of cement have so far gone into building the statue. “A total of 25,000 people are working round the clock,” he said. An 80-foot-long spear (vel) has been completed.

Sridhar’s father Muthu Natarajan, who died in 2018, had constructed three temples — the Periyanayaki Amman temple at Kallakurichi, the Pachiamman temple in Attur town and the Ranganathar temple at Narasingapuram. An elevator will be set up near the statue to take devotees up to a height of 120 ft to have close darshan. An ‘Annadhana’ hall will be built to offer free prasadam.

“We plan to construct a hospital that will offer free medical care, a marriage hall and an old age home on the temple premises,” Sridhar said.


TALL ORDER: ‘Tiruvarur’ Thiyagarajan, who sculpted the 140ft Murugan statue in Malaysia in 2006, is building the statue

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