HYDERABAD: Following the reports that the Yadagirigutta temple will be having pillars bearing image of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s face, TRS party’s ‘car’ symbol and images depicting schemes started by the TRS government like the KCR Kits, officials of Yadagirigutta Temple Development Authority (YTDA) declared that if there is widespread opposition among the public and if they feel that their “religious sentiments are hurt due to the image of CM in the temple, it will be removed”.
However, the YTDA authorities denied that the images were sculpted with any political motives.
Rather, they pointed out that the sculptors of temples often sculpt images which they deem relevant to the prevalent times when the temple was constructed and have the independence to sculpt any image they like.
They also stressed that the pillar is meant for the outer prahakaram, area meant for devotees to rest.
YTDA Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, G Kishan Rao speaking to the media said that there are also pillars in the temples with images of political figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi. He pointed out that even the Ahobilam temple has images of political leaders like Nehru sculpted on the pillars.
Sculptor owns up
Denying any political connotation of the car image on one of the pillars, he said that there are pillars with images of other vehicles like cycle, scooter and bullock cart, apart from an image of children playing cricket. He also pointed out that there is an image of a lotus on one of the pillars but it does not depict any party’s symbol.
Regarding the image depicting the KCR Kits scheme, he said that it is a social welfare scheme that has benefited lakhs of people, which is why the sculptors thought it should be depicted in the temple.
Kishan Rao said that one of the sculptors owned up to the image of Telangana CM being sculpted and conveyed “reason behind it as CM being a true devotee of god”.
He said that the practice of sculpting image of the contemporary ruler in a temple dates back to centuries and cited an example of how the Tirupati temple has a lifesize bronze image of the then ruler, Krishnadevaraya.
Sthapathi of the temple, Velu, pointed out that sculpting the image of contemporary ruler is common in black granite temples and it helps in preserving the information for eternity.