SHRAVANABELAGOLA: While the 58-foot monolith statue of Gomateshwara is the cynosure of all eyes in Shravanabelagola, a gold-plated umbrella atop it is attracting enough attention of visitors of Vindhyagiri to warrant a special mention.
One, in fact, cannot fail to notice the ‘mukuta’ as it glistens in the sun to emanate myriad reflections. The umbrella, which is also called ‘chatritriya’ because it is a series of three canopies stacked one above the other, is made out of bronze inlaid with copper and plated with gold.
Said to be larger and heavier than the previous one that adorned the gigantic Gomateshwara statue in this temple town, the ‘chatritriya’ was designed traditionally as per directions of Charukeerthi Bhattaraka swamiji.As many as 30 fabricators, coppersmiths and goldsmiths from Mangaluru produced the masterpiece, according to Shivaprasad, the owner of Goverdhan Metals, who handled the project. “We worked on the 1, 275 Kg ‘chatritriya’ for four months,” he told The New Indian Express.