An etched-in-time moment awaits Mysuru's star sculptor in Ayodhya

City-based sculptor Arun Yogiraj Shilpi has completed work on the statue of Ram Lalla, which is likely to be installed at the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. 

Arun is among the three sculptors - including G L Bhat from Bengaluru and Sathyanarayan Pandey from Rajasthan - who were finalised to sculpt the statues of Ram Lalla. One of the three statues will be finalised for installation at the grand temple. 

Arun told DH, “It took six months to complete the statue. It is 51 inches tall, from feet to forehead. The entire statue is over eight feet tall and 3.5-foot wide, including the ‘prabhavali’ (arch above the statue). It is the statue of Lord Ram as a five-year-old child, holding a bow and arrow”. 

If this statue is finalised, it will be the third statue by Arun, after the statue of Adi Shankaracharya at Kedarnath and Subash Chandra Bose at India Gate or Karthavya Path in Delhi, to be unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Arun is among the 2,000 dignitaries invited for the inauguration of Ram Mandir on January 22. 

The sculptor said he had received a work order from the department of justice of the union government for a statue of Dr B R Ambedkar, the architect of the Constitution. It will be installed in front of Jaisalmer House in Delhi.

He has already begun work on the statue. He has been asked to complete the work by February end. It is likely to be unveiled by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Arun said. 

A fifth generation sculptor, 40-year-old Arun, an MBA graduate, quit his corporate job to continue the tradition of sculpting statues in 2008. He has come up with more than 1,000 statues. He has inherited the art of sculpture from his late father B S Yogiraj Shilpi.