Ramadas, the owner of the land from where the black stones known as ‘’Krishna Shile’’ were extracted for sculpting the Ram Lalla idol at Ayodhya, said that he and his family consider it their fortune that the Ayodhya idol has been sculpted from the stones found on their land.
The stone was extracted from his land in Gujjegowdanapura in Jayapura hobli in the Mysuru district. G.T. Deve Gowda, Chamundeshwari MLA, announced that a temple for Sri Rama will be built there.
‘’A portion of the stone was protruding outward and was impeding agriculture. Hence, we wanted the land to be levelled for cultivation. But as the land was dug up it led to a massive boulder underneath and was removed with cranes,” said Ramadas.
One of the contractors – Srinivas – who also sources raw material for sculptors – and was in charge of levelling the field, found that the quality of the stone was superior. Through his contacts, information was passed to the temple trust at Ayodhya and they sought sample material and the rest is history, said Mr. Ramdas. ‘’We are glad that the same rock is now in the form of Ram Lalla idol at Ayodhya,’’ he added.
In addition, a few more blocks of stone were dispatched to Ayodhya and are being used for other idols, according to Mr. Srinivas who extracted the black stone.
Mr. Ramdas also welcomed the suggestion of Deve Gowda that a temple be constructed at the spot and said that a slew of rituals and rites will be conducted on January 22 in connection with temple construction. ‘’Along with my family members, I will proceed to Ayodhya sometime in the future and visit the temple and have darshan of Ram Lalla,’’ he added.
Meanwhile, a slew of programmes is being conducted in Mysuru across various temples to mark the consecration on January 22, 2024. Many temples have already put up hoardings announcing the details of the programmes to be conducted on Monday.
