Goddess at famous Bhuvaneshwari temple adorned with the new silver Kavacha on the occasion of Kannada Rajyothsava

Mysuru: New Silver Kavacha weighing 10 kg 842 grams donated by disciples of Art of Living was adorned to "Kannada Maathe" Goddess Bhuvaneshwari at famous Bhuvaneshwari temple at the North gate of Mysuru Palace premises, in Mysuru on the occasion of Kannada Rajyotsava on Sunday.

This silver Kavacha has been donated by more than 20 disciples of Swami Sooryapaada of Art of living, from Mysuru.

It was an year ago, when Swami Sooryapaada visited this temple during his visit to Mysuru, had expressed his wish to get the "Silver Kavacha" (armor) done for the black stoned deity at the temple. Mr Chennakeshava K C, a disciple of Art of living and Vice president of a software company in Mysuru who was with Swami Sooryapada at that time took lead in pooling funds of over Rs 8 lakh needed for the Silver Kavacha from disciples of Art of living.

Speaking to The Hans India, Mr Chennakeshava said, "While some of the disciples donated money, some gave silver. And most of these disciples who donated are software engineers and some are businessmen.

And at last Naveen an artist from Darwad came up with the idol. While it was thought to donate the Kavacha to temple on 13 May to mark the birthday of founder of Art of Living, Sri Ravishankar Guru ji, the temple was closed at that point of time for maintenance works and it was also the covid lockdown period. And at last on 21 September, during the re-opening ceremony of the temple after maintenance works were done, the "Silver Kavacha" was donated and all the necessary rituals were performed," he said.

Goddess Bhuvaneshwari, 'the embodiment of whole world as a diety', is known as 'Kannada maathe' too here. And Mysuru district Minister Mr S T Somashekar visited the temple before participating in Mysuru district level Kannada Rajyothsava (the day in 1956 when all the Kannada language-speaking regions of South India were merged to form the state of Karnataka) programme on Sunday morning.

According to Mysuru Palace board deputy director, Mr T S Subramanya, this Bhuvaneshwari temple at Mysuru Palace premises was built in 1951 by the 25th Maharaja of Mysuru, Sri Jayachamaraja Wadiyar. The Gopura (tower) of the temple is in Dravidian style. The idol of Goddess in the temple is sculpted by noted sculptor Shilpi Siddalingaswamy of Mysuru. Temple has a copper "Soorya Mandala" and it is said to have been moved from Mysuru Palace to the temple by Sri Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, he said.