Brother of sculptor who made Ayodhya Ram Lalla idol to make Devraj Urs statue, to be installed in Mysuru

The statue of former CM Devraj Urs will be installed to mark 'Karnataka Suvarna Sambrama'— remembering 50 years since Mysuru was renamed Karnataka by Urs. Y Surya Prakash who will carve the statue is also the brother of Arun Yogiraj— who sculpted Lord Ram's deity for the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Mysuru: The State Government has given administrative approval and passed an order for the installation of a statue of former Chief Minister Devraj Urs infront of the new DC office complex at Siddarthanagar in Mysuru.

The installation of the statue is to mark 'Karnataka Suvarna Sambrama', as it was during his Urs's term as CM fifity years ago, Mysuru State was renamed as Karnataka. The Department of Kannada and Culture (DKC) has also released Rs 92 lakh for this statue.

The statue will be sculpted by Y Suryaprakash, a fifth generation sculptor with 27 years of experience in the art of sculpting. He is the son of noted sculptor B S Yogiraj Shilpi and elder brother of Arun Yogiraj who has sculpted the statue of Ram Lalla of Ayodhya.

Surya Prakash told DH, "The statue will be sculpted in Krishna Shile found in a village in H D Kote taluk. The statue would be 12 feet tall and it would be installed on an eight feet pedestal. It will be ready in a few months as they plan to install it on the birth anniversary of Devraj Urs on August 20 this year. A masterpiece (one and half feet statue with Urs wearing 'Dothi and Kurtha) of Devraj Urs sculpted by me has been given to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and it would be sculpted in the same manner," he said.

Surya prakash (46) pursued his degree in Criminology, Psychology and English Literature in 1999 He has sculpted over 1,000 statues, including those of Mahatma Gandhi installed at GKVK campus in Bengaluru, Goddess Parvathi statue installed at Parvathi Betta in Hassan district, Lord Venkateshwara statue installed at Yelandur, statue of Kuvempu installed at Kumbara Koppal in Mysuru among many other artistic sculptors. Suryaprakash also honed his skills working for Sri Aathmalingeshwara temple of Mandya district, along with his late father Yogiraj Shilpi.

Past to present

Founder President of Devraj Urs Prathime Prathishtana Samithi— Zakir Hussain said that it was in 2018-2019, that Devraj Urs Prathime Prathishtana Samithi had submitted a proposal for the installation of Devaraj Urs statue in Mysuru. In July 2021, the Backward Class Development Department had submitted a proposal to the State Government, to come up with the statue at the cost of Rs 92 lakh.

Earlier, members of the Samithi along with MLC A H Vishwanath also met former chief ministers B S Yediyurappa, and Basavaraj Bommai while they recently also met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in this regard, Hussain recalled. He added that, in order to remember the works of Devraj Urs and mainly his role in renaming Mysuru State as Karnataka, since he also hails from Mysuru district, the Samithi urged that Urs's statue be installed this year to mark Karnataka Suvarna Sambrama, he said.

MLC A H Vishwanath has thanked CM Siddaramaiah and Minister for Kannada and Culture and even Backward Class Development Minister Shivraj Sangappa Tangadagi for approval of funds for the statue.