Edited by Deepali Verma
An announcement by the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has unveiled that the statue of Ram Lalla sculpted by Arun Yogiraj of Mysore has been selected for installation at the Ayodhya temple.
“The selection of the idol for the Prana Pratishtapana of Lord Rama in Ayodhya has been finalised. The idol of Lord Rama by a renowned sculptor of our country Yogiraj Arun, will be installed in Ayodhya,” Joshi said in a post on X.
Yogiraj remarked, “The idol should be of a child, who is divine too, as it is the statue of the incarnation of God. People looking at the statue should feel the divinity.”
“Keeping the divinity aspect along with the child-like face in mind, I started my work some six to seven months ago and now, I am extremely happy. More than the selection, people should appreciate the idol. Only then, I will be happy,” the sculptor added.
Yogiraj’s previous works include the statues of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose that have been installed at the India Gate. In 2021, he sculpted the statue of Adi Shankaracharya that is installed at Shri Kedarnath Dham in Uttarakhand.
The 12-foot tall stone sculpture of Adi Guru Shankaracharya had its journey from the workshop of sculptor Arun Yogiraj in Mysuru’s Saraswathipuram to the Samadhi sthal in Kedarnath by road until Chamoli Airbase. From the Airbase then it was airlifted by the Indian Air Force to Kedarnath where it was installed and dedicated to the nation on November 5, 2021 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Arun’s father Yogiraj Shilpi, was among the eight children of B Basavanna Shilpi and Yogiraj, one among his 17 grandchildren. His grandfather was a palace artist who worked on the Gayatri Temple, the Bhuvaneshwari Temple and similar tasks commissioned by the palace. The idol of Kaveri on the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam was also the work of his grandfather. Basavanna Shilpi was one of the first students of Shilpa Sri Siddhalinga Swamy, sculptor to the royal family of Mysore, who among others also played a pivotal role in designing the domes of the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru. Yogiraj’s grandfather joined his gurukula as a 10-year-old in 1931 and continued his training for the next 25 years under his guidance.
Arun recounts: “In 1953, once he came out of the mutt, he independently worked on the Gayatri temple as H H Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar presented him with an opportunity,” which is the journey of breathing life into stones. Grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of this historic feat, Arun says that it is a tribute to the legacy he inherits.
Having excelled in his studies and had obtained an MBA from Mysore University in 2008, and joined a private company. Arun had no plans to continue the saga with stones. However, the prophecy of his grandfather was destined to come true, he said. “Although I was a toddler, my grandfather had said that I would be the one picking up the tools and the one to carry forward his legacy and bring glory to his name” remembers Arun, saying “it is finally coming true after almost 37 years.”
Arun quit his job saying it “was not his cup of tea” and picked up his tools and became a full time sculptor in 2008.
“My father would always muse about his father’s foretelling and wonder if it would be true given that I got my masters and took up a job,” says Arun, remembering his ‘first and last guru’ who he lost in an accident recently while he was at the site of the statue’s installation in Kedarnath. The only consolation is that his father saw the idol through its completion.
“He shed tears when he saw the idol completely, remarking that I had preserved the legacy of his father,” remembers Arun nostalgically, wishing that if fate had not intervened, he could have taken his father for the installation ceremony.
Among Arun’s famous works are the Mysore’s 14.5-feet white marble stone sculpture of the Maharaja Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar in Mysore along with the life-size White marble sculpture of Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the various statues at the railway station among various others.
