Demand renewed for statue of Kannada Bhuvaneshwari

Yeddyurappa had earmarked ₹ 25 cr. for the statue ahead of 2nd World Kannada meet

A file photo of an idol of goddess Bhuvaneshwari being taken out in a procession in Gadag.

Enthused by the Karnataka government’s new zeal for Kannada advocacy, a group of litterateurs have renewed their demand for installing a statue of Kannada Bhuvaneshwari, Karnataka’s mother-goddess, in Bengaluru.

Many, including former presidents of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat G.S. Siddalingaiah and Go.Ru. Channabasappa, research scholar M. Chidananda Murthy, centenarian freedom fighter H.S. Doreswamy, writer and first president of the Kannada Book Authority L.S. Sheshagiri Rao, and Kannada activist Ra.Nam. Chandrashekar, have appealed to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to install the statue “at a prominent place in Bengaluru city”.

They have asked Mr. Siddaramaiah to set up a committee of experts to decide on issues such as the height of the statue and the metal to be used. Mr. Murthy said the decision on how to visually represent Bhuvaneshwari should be taken by an expert committee comprising representatives of the Karnataka Shilpa Kala Academy and historians.

The former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had taken the initiative of installing the idol and earmarked ₹25 crore for the purpose, just a few days before the second Vishwa Kannada Sammelan held in Belagavi in 2011. With the Congress government deciding to hold the third Vishwa Kannada Sammelan in Davangere in December, litterateurs have renewed their demand.

Two temples

Interestingly, there are two temples of Bhuvaneshwari in Karnataka: one at Hampi in Ballari district and another in Siddapura taluk of Uttara Kannada district. Siddapura town panchayat’s website claims Bhuvanagiri’s Bhuvaneshwari to be the “original Kannada Bhuvaneshwari”. Banavasi, the capital of Kadambas, is near Siddapura. However, the statue is believed to be of the 17th century.

However, many historians and scholars, including Mr. Murthy, favour Pampambiga goddess at Hampi as Bhuvaneshwari, citing inscriptions. The temple of Bhuvaneshwari was built in Hampi in the 11th century. Though the idea of a temple dedicated to Bhuvaneshwari Devi was conceived by the Kadambas, the rulers of Vijayanagara carried forward the idea.

The idea of Kannada Bhuvaneshwari was an important rallying point during the unification of Karnataka, argued Mr. Chandrashekar, citing ‘The Visual Culture of Contemporary India, Assertion of Kannada Visual Identity in Context of Globalisation’, a thesis by Unni Krishnan K. in the Department of Art History and Aesthetics of Fine Art, University of Baroda.