A Doctor's Dream Transforms A Village Into A Pilgrimage Site

A tiny village deep in Tiruvanamalai district has become the newest pilgrimage site for the Hindus in Tamil Nadu. For over a month now, Korakottai, home to about 400 households, has witnessed hundreds of people thronging its narrow streets. They are coming to see Perumal Salai, or the God Rock.

At the end of a mud road lined with brambles in Korakottai lie two giant charnockite rocks propped up on piles of stone slabs and wooden logs. On the bigger rock, 66 feet long, is sculpted the Hindu god Vishnu. The smaller 30-foot-long rock is to be sculpted into a seven-headed snake that will be placed on Vishnu’s head. The two monoliths, one weighing 380 tonnes and the other 260 tonnes, will eventually be taken to the Kothandaramaswamy Temple in Bengaluru, more than 300 km away. Together, the rocks will form a nearly 100-foot statue of the deity.

It all began with a doctor’s dream. B Sadanand, the main trustee of the temple, had long harboured the desire to carve a statue for the shrine that is unlike any in the world. “We have been looking for single rocks but finding them is extremely difficult,” the physician told The Hindu. “My earlier attempt to make the statue failed after the rock cracked at 47 feet.”