Shravanabelagola (Hassan): Siddaramaiah entered the record books as he became the first Karnataka chief minister to inaugurate the “Mahamastakabhisheka” and then subsequently take part in the “Mahamajjana” (Mahakumbh) rituals, which are held once in 12 years.
Earlier chief ministers including R Gundu Rao and Dharam Singh had lost power and were unable to take part in Mahamajjana rituals after inaugurating the “Mahamastakabhisheka” celebrations.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah climbed the hill on his own and offered “Jalabhishekha”, (sprinkling water on the idol of Bahubali atop Vindhyagiri Hills).
CM took blessings of around 360 Jain Munis present on the occasion.
With his personal feat, he succeeded in eliminating the blind belief of losing power after inaugurating “Mahamastakabhisheka” celebrations.
The mega event which is held once in 12 years started from February 17. The event is also considered as Mahakumbh of the Jains.
Lakhs of devotees are witnessing the event atop and special arrangements have been made. Security has been beefed up to maintain law and order situation.
The 57-foot high statue of Lord Gommetshwara Bahubali, son of first Tirthankara Adinath, is very famous as it is the world’s tallest monolithic graphite statue.
The first ceremony of Abhishek was held in 981 AD and since then the ritual has been followed. Shravanabelagola has been a Jain pilgrimage centre for the past 2,500 years.
Even visiting Chamarajanagar, a backward district bordering Tamil Nadu was considered a bad omen as few state chief ministers had lost power in the past after their visit. Even in this case, CM Siddaramiah proved his critics wrong as he remained in power after multiple visits to Chamarajanagar.
But the crow’s droppings which forced him to change his expensive Toyota car still remains a mystery for many!
