Even as the nation rejoices over the “return of Bhagwan Ram” to his rightful abode in Ayodhya after the Pran Pratishtha, Srinivas Nataraj, the local quarry contractor who found the Krishna Shila used for sculpting the Ram Lalla idol was left in tears. Srinivas was fined Rs 80,000 by Karnataka government’s mines and geology department for alleged illegal quarrying.
Srinivas Nataraj, a local quarry contractor who was given the contract to clear the rocks from the farming land belonging to a farmer named Ramdas, stated that one enormous rock was separated into three blocks and Arun Yogiraj – the Mysuru-based sculptor – chose one of the blocks for the idol for Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. However, the mines and geology department penalised him Rs 80,000 for allegedly illegally quarrying the land. He said that some informants had conveyed the word to the department prior to the stone block delivery and he was then fined.
According to a Vijayapatha report, Srinivas Nataraj, a resident of Harohalli-Gujjegoudanapura village, had to pawn his wife’s gold jewellery to pay the fine imposed on him. Srinivas said that he only cleared the rocks and moved to the next farmland. However, the mines and geology department accused him of illegal mining and levied a Rs 80,000 fine. The quarry contractor lamented that no one stepped forward to help him. “I am waiting for someone to help me too,” Srinivas said.
Notably, the land from where the black granite stone was procured is owned by a Dalit farmer Ramdas, who recently pledged to donate a part of his land for the construction of a temple of Bhagwan Ram. The 70-year-old farmer is a resident of Gujjegowdanapura village near Mysuru. He said that out of the 2.14 acres of land he owns, he wanted to clear the rocks for agricultural usage. Ramdas said that he decided to remove the rocks after failing to level the ground for farming. For this, he gave the contract to Srinivas Nataraj who cleared the stones.
Subsequently, sculptor Arun Yogiraj selected the stone block found in the cleared rocks, which he wanted to use for making the Ram Lalla idol. Later, stone blocks from the same property were again taken to carve idols of Bharatha, Lakshmana and Shatrughna, Srinivas Nataraj said.
Speaking about his pledge to construct a Ram Mandir on his land, Ramdas said, “We have an Anjaneya temple facing south, making it look like the Anjaneya idol is looking at the site from where the stone was mined for the Ram Lalla idol. I have, thus, decided to donate four guntas of land to construct a temple dedicated to Lord Ram here. We will meet Arun Yogiraj to carve the idol of Lord Ram for the temple.”
Notably, the Ram Mandir trust had appointed three sculptors to sculpt the Ram Lalla idol from stone. Out of the three, the one by Arun Yogiraj was selected by the trust as the idol to be installed in the sanctum sanctorum of Ram Mandir. The two idols not selected, a black stone sculpture by Ganesh Bhatt from Karnataka and a white marble idol by Satyanarayan Pandey from Rajasthan, will be placed in prominent places in the temple complex.
Ram Mandir Pran Pratishtha
The Pran Pratishtha of Bhavya Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was conducted by the hands of PM Narendra Modi on 22nd January 2024. The grand idol of Shri Ram’s Baal Swarup (childhood form) is now the revered God of over a billion Hindus across the world. There were 15 “Yajmans” for the consecration ceremony with RSS leader Anil Mishra and his wife Usha being the mukhya or pradhan yajman.
