Rabble Rousing Random Ramblings: Mahawasteabhisheka?

February 09, 2006

Mahawasteabhisheka?

Yesterday, at Shravanabelagola, the Mahamastakabhisheka of the 58 ft. tall monolithic statue of Bahubali was conducted.

Goscinny and Uderzo, in a backhanded tribute to Ben-Hur, wrote "The greatest story ever drawn. 14 litres of india ink, 30 brushes, 62 soft pencils, 1 hard pencil, 27 rubbers [erasers], 1984 sheets of paper, 16 typewriter ribbons, 2 typewriters, 366 pints of beer went into its creation!". They were referring to 'Asterix and Cleopatra'.

"The Hindu" reports

108 kalashas, 500 tender coconuts, 300 kalashas of Ikshurasa, 300 kalashas of milk, 100 kg of milled rice, 25 kg of sandalwood paste, 25 kg of turmeric paste and other ingredients were offered to the Lord of the Vindhyagiri

A 'kalasha' is a vessel and I'm assuming that it can hold around a litre. Each coconut would have cost at least Rs. 5. I don't know what Ikshurasa is. A litre of milk costs anywhere from Rs. 12 to Rs. 14. Milled rice would cost around Rs. 12 to Rs. 15 per kg. I have no idea what the price of sandalwood and turmeric paste is.

The arithmetic tells us that a minimum of Rs. 7300 would have been spent on this 'abhishekam'. With Rs. 7300, they could have instead fed around 700 people since I'm fairly sure you can get a decent meal for around Rs. 10.

What is the point of this exercise, if not a show of strength? I'm agnostic. Perhaps I'm not qualified to comment. Perhaps there will be hordes of Jains (and people from other religions) who will be offended. I don't really care. Rs. 7300 may not seem a huge amount, but feeding 700 odd more people certainly does seem a huge task, doesn't it?

Rambled @ 2:56 PM

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4 comment(s)

Well, I fully agree with you. In fact if you add the cost of Sandalwood at Rs6000.00 (its true!) a kg and turmeric at Rs.80/kg and Ikshurasa( cane juice) at Rs. 20 a litre, we are talking of upwards of 2 lakhs. Not to mention the vermillion and other incidental expenses like cost of the platform made for the same and the expenses made on the VIP guests. But who's going to protest? This is us!!!

By Anonymous (Feb 9, 2006, 3:35:00 PM)

atanu: Nice numbers, those. Add in the publicity expenses and it is all coming out of the tax we pay?

By Jagadish (Feb 9, 2006, 7:53:00 PM)

Not a bad idea Suraj, I know which ones I'd tick!

By Jagadish (Feb 10, 2006, 1:33:00 PM)

for the very same reason of too much costs.. the celebrations are carried on every 12 yrs..

>>Rs. 7300 may not seem a huge amount

whatever figures u said.. would be not worthy of 'rational debate' if u consider it for 12 long years..

moreover the festival has being followed for centuries.. right from the day the statue was erected some thousands of years ago.. so if govt decides to discourage it or minimize its grandness, it would defenitely hurt the sentiments of lots of traditionalists..

since its 12 yrs, what devotees offer to God is defenitely bearable in terms of costs..

By Anonymous (Jul 21, 2006, 12:09:00 PM)

I'd prefer if you posted comments with your real name to add more credibility to your opinions. Obviously comments containing offensive and unsuitable language will be deleted. The opinions in the comments are your own views. You are welcome to provide a URL to your own blog, especially if it discusses issues you find here.

Mahawasteabhisheka?

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