Venur, February 6: The curtain descended on the second Mahamastakabhisheka celebrations of the new millennium officially here on Sunday with a colourful anointing ceremony for the statue of Bahubali situated on the northern side of River Phalguni.
The visual splendour of grand anointment unfolded as many pilgrims sang and danced in front of the 35-foot-tall monolithic statue.
The highlight of the final day was 1008 kalasha abhishekha which started with the prathama kalasha at 6.45 pm.
As many as 4,000 devotees sitting in the main venue and in excess of 40,000 outside witnessed the head anointing ceremony of the monolith, erected in 1604 AD to commemorate Lord Bahubali's supreme sacrifice of renouncing the throne in pursuit of eternal bliss and liberation.
Ashok Jain, secretary of the Mahamasthakabhisheka Committee, said the total attendance to witness the event for the nine day event crossed 1.5 lakh, with a maximum of 40,000 on Sunday and 35,000 each on Friday and Saturday. ``As the event was also telecast live on Sunday, on a local channel, the numbers did not swell as expected,'' he added.
Earlier the 1008 kalasha's filled with 'agrodaka' from the well at Rama Mandir at Kelaginapete, about a kilometer from the main venue was brought in a procession. The nine day event remained incident-free without any accidents or case of missing persons, barring a two hour traffic gridlock on Saturday.
What followed after the two hour 1008 kalasha Jalabhisheka was indeed breath-taking. From white to yellow to red, the colour of the monolith statue changed every half an hour, to the awe of devotees chanting steady stream of devotional songs and chant of `Bolo Bahubali Bhagwan ki Jai' renting the air. As many as 800 litres of milk, 300 litres of tender coconout water, 300 litres of cane sugar juice, five `butti's' of rice flour powder and 80 kgs of turmeric, srigandha, chandana, astagandha paste slid down the monolith on the final day. The final offering, after maha arathi, was a huge garland of over 20,000 flowers to Bahubali which ended the nine day spectacle and filled devotees with visual as well as spiritual bliss.
The next Mahamasthakabhisheka will be held in this region itself at Karkala (Udupi District) in 2014.
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