Kovalam: Work on a 12-foot-tall ‘Viswaroopam’ wooden sculpture is set to adorn the house of Malayalam superstar Mohanlal in Chennai. This art form based on a Hindu iconography of Lord Vishnu has been created by a team of nine sculptors on the orders of the actor and aims to set a Guinness Record.
Vishwaroopam literally means “universal form”. It denotes a vision of the divinity as mentioned in the 'Bhagavad Gita'.
The work on the exquisite sculpture was carried out over a period of three-and-a-half years at the Craft Village, Vellar, near Kovalam in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala by Vellar Nagappan and his team.
“We will take the sculpture to Mohanlal’s house early in June,” said Nagappan.
Reliefs on major mythological events
While an image of 11-faced Lord Vishnu is carved on one side of the sculpture, Krishna blowing his conch ‘panchajanya’ and surrounded by ‘Dasavathara’ (the 10 incarnations of Lord Vishnu) could be seen on the other side. ‘Geethopadesam’ (Krishna advising Arjuna on the battlefield - explaining the Bhagavad Gita) and the controversial game of dice are depicted below the Viswaroopam.
On another side of the sculpture, Bheeshma lying on a bed of arrows and the disrobing of Panchali are chiselled in detail. Other images on the sculpture include ‘Kaliyamardanam’ (Krishna defeating Kaliya in battle) and Krishna with ‘gopis’ (his mates).
In fact, there are around 400 different mythological characters on the sculpture.
Three years ago, Mohanlal had purchased a ‘Viswaroopam’ sculpture which had a height of six feet, following which he contacted sculptor Nagappan for another such creation having double the size. Apart from Nagappan, the team of sculptors included Radhakrishnan, Ramachandran, Peedom Vijayan, Saji, Bhagyaraj, Soman, Sivanandan and Kumar.
