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The Thiruvalluvar Statue, or the Valluvar Statue, is a 40.6 m tall stone sculpture of the Tamil poet and philosopher Tiruvalluvar, author of the Tirukkural, an ancient Tamil work on secular ethics and morality. It is located atop a small island near the town of Kanyakumari on the southernmost point of the Indian peninsula on the Coromandel Coast, where two seas (the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea) and an ocean (the Indian Ocean) meet. The statue was sculpted by the Indian sculptor Dr. V. Ganapati Sthapati, who also created the Iraivan Temple, and was unveiled on the millennium day of 1 January 2000 by the then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.
DESCRIPTION
The combined height of the statue and pedestal is 40.5 metres, denoting the 133 chapters of the Tirukkural. This includes 29 metre sculpture of Valluvar standing upon a 11.5 metre pedestal that represents the 38 chapters of Virtue, the first of the three books of the Kural text. The statue itself represents the second and third books of the Kural text, namely, Wealth and Love. The whole design signifies that wealth and love be earned and enjoyed on the foundation of solid virtue. The right hand of the statue with three fingers pointing skywards signifies the three cantos of the Kural text, viz., Aram, Porul, and Inbam (Virtue, Wealth, and Love, respectively), combined. The head of the statue stands at a height of 200 feet above the sea level.
The statue, with its slight bend around the waist is reminiscent of a dancing pose of the ancient Indian deities like Nataraja.
The monument is regarded as a cultural fusion because of its juxtaposition beside the Vivekananda Rock Memorial. Built in conformation with traditional Indian architecture, the statue has provision to provide a hollow portion inside from toe to scalp. Visitors, however, will not be allowed to scale, but instead be permitted to climb up to the foot of the statue at a height of 38 feet.
The statue weighs 7000 tons (14 million pounds).
CONSTRUCTION
Public Works Department (PWD) Minister K.V. Ramalingam said that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Government initiated the preliminary works for installation of the magnificent 133-feet-tall Thiruvalluvar statue in Kanyakumari.
He told this to reporters here after inspecting the Erode Government Hospital on Saturday.
“The proposal to install the statue of Thiruvalluvar was made by former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran. Following his demise, then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa took the next step for installing the statue by floating tender to begin the works. But this could not be completed by the AIADMK as the government changed.
The project was conceived by M. Karunanidhi in December 1975, following a representation from Eknath Ranade, former president of the Vivekananda Kendra. On 15 April 1979, the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai laid the foundation stone for the statue, in the presence of the then Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran. However, the actual sculpting work, led by Dr. V. Ganapathy Sthapathy, former principal of the Government College of Architecture at Mahabalipuram, began a decade later on 6 September 1990, on the tiny island adjacent to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial when funds were allocated in the 1990-91 budget. Sthapathy was chosen for the project over 300 master builders because his suggestion for an all-stone monument to the poet-philosopher prevailed. He observed that stone would be more durable than metal, citing that the Statue of Liberty, which is made of copper, required extensive renovation just a century after its installation. Initially, the project stalled, perhaps owing to Karunanidhi's election loss, but then recommenced in 1997 when he returned to office. At the cost of more than US$1 million (INR 61.4 million), the project employed about 150 workers, sculptors, assistants and supervisors, who worked about 16 hours a day to complete the work. The bend around the waist depicting a dance pose made the design challenging. However, the problem was tackled well in advance by the sculptor by creating a full-length wooden prototype before construction. Study of this prototype led to the identification of an energy line (known in Vastu as kayamadhyasutra), currently an empty cavity in the center of the statue from top to bottom.
The stone work was divided amongst three workshops, in Kanyakumari, Ambasamudram and Sholinganallur. Ambasamudram contributed 5,000 tons of stones, while Sholinganallur was quarried for 2,000 tons of high-quality granite stones for the outer portion of the statue. While the largest of the 3,681 stones were 13-feet long and weighed over 15 tons, the majority weighed three to eight tons. Stones of such proportion were previously used only in Mayan temples in South America. An interesting detail is the 19-foot-high face, with the ears, nose, eyes, mouth, forehead all made of individual stones carved by hand. The work was done mostly by hand, with each carver wearing down 40 to 50 sharp chisels a day. The sculptors team considered that the manual method on granite stones is the most dependable since machines may tend break the stones and precision is difficult. Stumps of palmyra tree and poles of casuarina (ironwood) were used for scaffolding. It took 18,000 casuarina poles tied together with two truckloads of ropes to reach the top of the statue. The statue was placed on its pedestal on 19 October 1999.
The statue was unveiled on the millennium day of 1 January 2000.The statue was inaugurated on 1st January 2000 by Dr. M. Karunanidhi, the then chief minister of Tamilnadu. Besides Indian political leaders and celebrities, foreign delegates including those from Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka, participated in the opening ceremony. Several Tamil teachers from the state of Tamil Nadu took out a rally from Kottaram to Kanyakumari carrying Tirukkural placards to mark the ceremony. More than fifty thousand people gathered for the event. The chief minister, after unveiling the statue, called it a "beacon of light to guide human life for all time to come."
The monument was hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004 but stood unaffected. The statue is designed to survive earthquakes of unexpected magnitude, such as magnitude 6 on the Richter Scale occurring within 100 kilometers. This is far beyond that of any event recorded in the regional history because the bedrock in the region is ancient and without known local faults.
MAINTENANCE
To prevent the statue from corrosion due to sea breeze, the statue is chemically treated once in four years. The salty deposits in every joint are removed and replaced with new cement mixture. Paper pulp is then applied on the whole of the statue. As the paper pulp coating dries, it absorbs the salty deposits completely, after which it is removed.
The statue has been thus treated three times since its unveiling. The fourth treatment began on 17 April 2017 and is expected to complete by 15 October 2017.
ACCESS
The statue stands 400 meters from the coastline of Kanyakumari on a small island rock. Ferry service are available from the mainland. The ferry service to Vivekananda Rock Memorial stops for a while at the Valluvar Statue.
The Vivekananda Kendra has a proposal to connect the Valluvar memorial with the Vivekananda rock memorial by bridge to enable visitors to move easily from one island to the other.
WIKIPEDIA
Location:Vickramasingapuram, Ambasamudram Taluk Tirunelveli Dist TN India
How privileged those people are, to have a dip here everyday !
The Thiruvalluvar Statue, or the Valluvar Statue, is a 40.6 m tall stone sculpture of the Tamil poet and philosopher Tiruvalluvar, author of the Tirukkural, an ancient Tamil work on secular ethics and morality. It is located atop a small island near the town of Kanyakumari on the southernmost point of the Indian peninsula on the Coromandel Coast, where two seas (the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea) and an ocean (the Indian Ocean) meet. The statue was sculpted by the Indian sculptor Dr. V. Ganapati Sthapati, who also created the Iraivan Temple, and was unveiled on the millennium day of 1 January 2000 by the then Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi.
DESCRIPTION
The combined height of the statue and pedestal is 40.5 metres, denoting the 133 chapters of the Tirukkural. This includes 29 metre sculpture of Valluvar standing upon a 11.5 metre pedestal that represents the 38 chapters of Virtue, the first of the three books of the Kural text. The statue itself represents the second and third books of the Kural text, namely, Wealth and Love. The whole design signifies that wealth and love be earned and enjoyed on the foundation of solid virtue. The right hand of the statue with three fingers pointing skywards signifies the three cantos of the Kural text, viz., Aram, Porul, and Inbam (Virtue, Wealth, and Love, respectively), combined. The head of the statue stands at a height of 200 feet above the sea level.
The statue, with its slight bend around the waist is reminiscent of a dancing pose of the ancient Indian deities like Nataraja.
The monument is regarded as a cultural fusion because of its juxtaposition beside the Vivekananda Rock Memorial. Built in conformation with traditional Indian architecture, the statue has provision to provide a hollow portion inside from toe to scalp. Visitors, however, will not be allowed to scale, but instead be permitted to climb up to the foot of the statue at a height of 38 feet.
The statue weighs 7000 tons (14 million pounds).
CONSTRUCTION
Public Works Department (PWD) Minister K.V. Ramalingam said that the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) Government initiated the preliminary works for installation of the magnificent 133-feet-tall Thiruvalluvar statue in Kanyakumari.
He told this to reporters here after inspecting the Erode Government Hospital on Saturday.
“The proposal to install the statue of Thiruvalluvar was made by former Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran. Following his demise, then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa took the next step for installing the statue by floating tender to begin the works. But this could not be completed by the AIADMK as the government changed.
The project was conceived by M. Karunanidhi in December 1975, following a representation from Eknath Ranade, former president of the Vivekananda Kendra. On 15 April 1979, the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai laid the foundation stone for the statue, in the presence of the then Chief Minister, M. G. Ramachandran. However, the actual sculpting work, led by Dr. V. Ganapathy Sthapathy, former principal of the Government College of Architecture at Mahabalipuram, began a decade later on 6 September 1990, on the tiny island adjacent to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial when funds were allocated in the 1990-91 budget. Sthapathy was chosen for the project over 300 master builders because his suggestion for an all-stone monument to the poet-philosopher prevailed. He observed that stone would be more durable than metal, citing that the Statue of Liberty, which is made of copper, required extensive renovation just a century after its installation. Initially, the project stalled, perhaps owing to Karunanidhi's election loss, but then recommenced in 1997 when he returned to office. At the cost of more than US$1 million (INR 61.4 million), the project employed about 150 workers, sculptors, assistants and supervisors, who worked about 16 hours a day to complete the work. The bend around the waist depicting a dance pose made the design challenging. However, the problem was tackled well in advance by the sculptor by creating a full-length wooden prototype before construction. Study of this prototype led to the identification of an energy line (known in Vastu as kayamadhyasutra), currently an empty cavity in the center of the statue from top to bottom.
The stone work was divided amongst three workshops, in Kanyakumari, Ambasamudram and Sholinganallur. Ambasamudram contributed 5,000 tons of stones, while Sholinganallur was quarried for 2,000 tons of high-quality granite stones for the outer portion of the statue. While the largest of the 3,681 stones were 13-feet long and weighed over 15 tons, the majority weighed three to eight tons. Stones of such proportion were previously used only in Mayan temples in South America. An interesting detail is the 19-foot-high face, with the ears, nose, eyes, mouth, forehead all made of individual stones carved by hand. The work was done mostly by hand, with each carver wearing down 40 to 50 sharp chisels a day. The sculptors team considered that the manual method on granite stones is the most dependable since machines may tend break the stones and precision is difficult. Stumps of palmyra tree and poles of casuarina (ironwood) were used for scaffolding. It took 18,000 casuarina poles tied together with two truckloads of ropes to reach the top of the statue. The statue was placed on its pedestal on 19 October 1999.
The statue was unveiled on the millennium day of 1 January 2000.The statue was inaugurated on 1st January 2000 by Dr. M. Karunanidhi, the then chief minister of Tamilnadu. Besides Indian political leaders and celebrities, foreign delegates including those from Malaysia, Singapore, and Sri Lanka, participated in the opening ceremony. Several Tamil teachers from the state of Tamil Nadu took out a rally from Kottaram to Kanyakumari carrying Tirukkural placards to mark the ceremony. More than fifty thousand people gathered for the event. The chief minister, after unveiling the statue, called it a "beacon of light to guide human life for all time to come."
The monument was hit by the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004 but stood unaffected. The statue is designed to survive earthquakes of unexpected magnitude, such as magnitude 6 on the Richter Scale occurring within 100 kilometers. This is far beyond that of any event recorded in the regional history because the bedrock in the region is ancient and without known local faults.
MAINTENANCE
To prevent the statue from corrosion due to sea breeze, the statue is chemically treated once in four years. The salty deposits in every joint are removed and replaced with new cement mixture. Paper pulp is then applied on the whole of the statue. As the paper pulp coating dries, it absorbs the salty deposits completely, after which it is removed.
The statue has been thus treated three times since its unveiling. The fourth treatment began on 17 April 2017 and is expected to complete by 15 October 2017.
ACCESS
The statue stands 400 meters from the coastline of Kanyakumari on a small island rock. Ferry service are available from the mainland. The ferry service to Vivekananda Rock Memorial stops for a while at the Valluvar Statue.
The Vivekananda Kendra has a proposal to connect the Valluvar memorial with the Vivekananda rock memorial by bridge to enable visitors to move easily from one island to the other.
WIKIPEDIA
A.Selvaraj,thokuthi amaippalar,
aiadmk ambasamudram legislative assembly from 1972 with former chief minister m.G.Ramachandran
The Thiruvalluvar Statue is a 40.6 m tall stone sculpture of the Tamil poet and philosopher Tiruvalluvar, author of the Thirukkural. It is located atop a small island near the town of Kanyakumari on the southernmost Coromandel Coast, where two seas and an ocean meet; the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean .
CONTENTS
DESCRIPTION
The statue has a height of 29 m and stands upon a 11.5 m pedestal that represents the 38 chapters of "virtue" in the Thirukkural. The statue standing on the pedestal represents "wealth" and "pleasures", signifying that wealth and love be earned and enjoyed on the foundation of solid virtue.
The combined height of the statue and pedestal is 40.5 m, denoting the 133 chapters in the Thirukkural. It has a total weight of 7000 tons.
The statue, with its slight bend around the waist is reminiscent of a dancing pose of the ancient Indian deities like Nataraja. It was sculpted by the Indian sculptor Dr. V. Ganapati Sthapati, who also created the Iraivan Temple.
Its opening ceremony was on January 1, 2000 (Millennium). The monument was hit by the Indian Ocean Tsunami on December 26, 2004.
CONSTRUCTION
In 1979, the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai laid the foundation stone for the statue. However, the installation and the sculpting work began on September 6, 1990, on the tiny island adjacent to Vivekananda Rock Memorial when funds were allocated in the 1990-91 budget. Initially, the project stalled but then recommenced in 1997 and was completed on January 1, 2000. At the cost of more than US$1 million (INR 61.4 million), it employed about 150 workers, sculptors, assistants and supervisors. The slight bend around the waist made the design challenging. Dr. V. Ganapati Sthapati solved the problem by creating a full-length wooden prototype before construction. Study of this prototype led to the identification of an energy line (known in Vastu as kayamadhyasutra), currently an empty cavity in the center of the statue from top to bottom. Sthapati designed the statue to survive earthquakes of unexpected magnitude. This Statue was constructed in the DMK Government period.
The stone work was divided amongst three workshops, in Kanyakumari, Ambasamudram and Shankarapuram. Ambasamudram contributed 5,000 tons of stones, while Shankarapuram was quarried for 2,000 tons of high quality granite stones for the outer portion of the statue. While the largest of the 3,681 stones weighed over 15 tons, the majority weighed three to eight tons. An interesting detail is the 19-foot-high face, with the ears, nose, eyes, mouth, forehead all made of individual stones carved by hand. Stumps of palmyra tree and poles of casuarina (ironwood) were used for scaffolding. It took 18,000 casuarina poles tied together with two truckloads of ropes to reach the top of the statue.
ACCESS
The statue stands 400 meters from the coastline of Kanyakumari on a small island rock. Ferry service are available from the mainland. The ferry service to Vivekananda Rock Memorial stops for a while at the Thiruvalluvar Statue.
WIKIPEDIA
This mountain is called as "Iympothigai"(five pothigais). It is beleived that the Lord Siva & Shakthi shown thier marriage incident to the Sage Shri Agasthiyar. Now, here lot of sages & the great 18 siddhars are living. PLEASE READ THE NOTES ON THIS PICTURE.