Hanuman stands tallest at Jakhu in Shimla

Shriniwas Joshi

I was recently at Hardwar, where I saw a statue of Lord Shankar standing on the banks of river Ganga. It is 30.5 metre high and is shorter by 2.5 metres than that of Lord Hanuman at Jakhu in Shimla. 

It is the 22nd tallest statue in India, whereas that of Hanuman at Jakhu is the 14th. The city of Hardwar has been changed to Haridwar, not by a government proclamation, but, I believe, by people themselves. A few years ago, I had seen signposts with the word Hardwar written on those as also at government offices. This time, I found it changed to Haridwar although the city has nothing to do with Hari and has to do with Har (Shiv). Ganga from the sky descended on the top of Har and then flew ahead on the earth. Then the tall statue, I am talking about, is that of Har and not of Hari.

The idol at Hardwar is that of Shankar and not of Shiva. Are the two separate? Yes, Shiva is worshipped in the oval-shaped form of ‘ling’. ‘Ling’ form of deity is always called Shiva and never Shankar. So a ‘niraakaar’ form is Shiva, which, I reckon, is a sculptor, who has created a sculpture of his own and that is Shankar. In some of the relief work done on the walls of the temples, Shankar has been shown worshipping the ‘ling’. Shivling represents the incorporeal nature of that highest power. He is neither male nor female. He is absolute and full. He is an ethereal point of light that is why his renowned abodes are known as Jyotirlinga maths. Jyoti means light. The concept of Shaivism also depicts an absolute God, who is both pure consciousness and soul consciousness and actively passive and unconditionally dynamic. Nirvana Shatkam reads: “I am neither mind, nor ego, intelligence, nor thought, neither ears, nor tongue, nor the senses of smell and sight, neither am I ether, earth, fire, water or air; I am pure knowledge; I am Shiva.” Kurma Purana also says: “Mahadeva is by nature formless, single, dwelling his own self.” Shiva, therefore, is above of and different from Shankar. Shiva has different names in Himachal Pradesh. He is Vaidyanath ‘physician’ at Baijnath (Kangra); Ardhnarishwar at Samkhetar in Mandi; Maheshwar in Kinnaur; Neelkanth at Srikhand peak in outer Seraj; Vishveshwar at Bajaura in Kullu, Chandrashekhar at Sahu (Chamba) and Mahadev, Mahasu, Mahashiv etc. And in Chamba, people are more formal and call him ‘Dhuru’ – a person draped in ash and dancing with his hair flowing - ‘Dhuru nachya, jatta ho khalari ho’. Here they are dancing with Shankar.

Coming back to statues, the tallest statue in India, nay in the world, today is that of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel located in Gujarat, near Narmada Dam. It is called the Statue of Unity as Sardar Patel had united the different princely states with the dominion of India. The basic principles of the day for any nation are: Unity, Liberty, Fraternity and Equality. We have statue for Unity in India; the statue of Liberty at New York in the US and the statue of Fraternity in Paris, France. What about the statue of Equality? Have we forgotten it? No, India that has the marked disparity between the rich and the poor is raising a statue of Equality at Hyderabad to mark the 1,000th anniversary of Ramanujacharya. At 216 feet, it will be the second tallest sitting statue in the world, a feat hardly to be equalled. And so, Equality shall be achieved.

The Statue of Unity is 182 metre high – the tallest in the world. Do you know that there is a common link between this statue and quite a few of those in Himachal? That link is Ram Vanji Sutar, an Indian sculptor, who was born on February 19, 1925. He had designed the Statue of Unity and has sculpted the statues of Indira Gandhi and Rajeev Gandhi at Shimla, Jawaharlal Nehru at Manali and the bust of Mahatma Gandhi at Dharamsala. I had had several visits to his workshop across the river Yamuna in Delhi, when he was designing the statue of Nehru.

The tallest statue in present day Himachal is that of Lord Hanuman at Jakhu. It is 108 feet tall and was sculpted by Naresh Kumar of Pilani (Rajasthan). It is a gift to Himachal Pradesh by the Nandas, the daughter and son-in-law of Amitabh Bachchan, and that is why it was made public by Abhishek Bachchan in 2010. One writer observes that the mystery and enigma of Jakhu temple is marred forever with the construction of this idol visible from all corners of Shimla. Is it so?

Tailpiece

A foreigner came to my house and seeing towards distant Jakhu said: “Why is the Roman soldier standing there? Did Romans ever come to Shimla?” I said: “No. It is Lord Hanuman, our God.” “Looks like an ancient Roman soldier,” he said.