Tiruvalluvar statue (Kanyakumari)
The Tiruvalluvar statue is a 40.5 meter high monumental statue of the Tamil poet Tiruvalluvar (the author of the Tirukkural ) in front of Kanyakumari on Cape Komorin , the southern tip of India , in the state of Tamil Nadu .
Building description
The Tiruvalluvar statue was designed by the sculptor V. Ganapati Sthapati . It shows Tiruvalluvar in a standing pose. According to the usual Tiruvalluvar iconography, the poet is depicted as a sage with a beard and a bun. He is holding a palm leaf manuscript in his left hand , the right hand is raised. The three middle fingers of the right hand pointing upwards symbolize the three books of Tiruvalluvars Tirukkural . The Tiruvalluvar statue is 29 meters (95 feet) high and stands on a 11.5 meters (38 feet) high pedestal. This results in a total height of the monument of 40.5 meters (133 feet). The height of the statue represents the 133 chapters of the Tirukkural .
The Tiruvalluvar statue is located on a small rock island about 400 meters from Kanyakumari. Right next to this is a second island with the Vivekananda rock memorial , a monument to the Hindu philosopher Vivekananda , who spent three days meditating here in 1892. From Kanyakumari there is a ferry connection to the Tiruvalluvar statue.
History of origin
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The Tiruvalluvar statue is a prestige project of the politician M. Karunanidhi , the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. After the Vivekananda memorial in front of Kanyakumari was inaugurated in 1970, it seemed unbearable to Karunanidhi from a Tamil nationalist point of view that, with Vivekananda, a memorial to a north Indian was erected in front of the southern tip of Tamil Nadu. Therefore, in 1975 the Tamil Nadu government decided to build an even larger monument to the poet Tiruvalluvar in front of Kanyakumari. Tiruvalluvar probably lived in the 5th or 6th century and wrote the teaching congregation Tirukkural , which is highly regarded among the Tamils. The DMK in particular stylized Tiruvalluvar into an icon of Tamil cultural nationalism. In M. Karunanidhi's first reign, the construction of another large Tiruvalluvar monument, the Valluvar Kottam in Chennai, also fell.
After the Karunanidhi government was overthrown in 1976, Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai laid the foundation stone for the Tiruvalluvar Memorial in Kanyakumari in 1979, but the project stalled. After Karunanidhi was re-elected to the post of Chief Minister, he approved new funds in 1990 for the statue project and the actual work on the statue began. On October 19, 1999, the Tiruvalluvar statue was placed on its pedestal, and on January 1, 2000, it was ceremonially unveiled.
Web links
- CM unveils Thiruvalluvar statue. In: The Hindu. January 2, 2000.
- Monumental achievements. ( Memento from August 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Hindu. March 13, 2010.
Coordinates: 8 ° 4 ′ 40 ″ N , 77 ° 33 ′ 14 ″ E