GRAND FESTIVAL OF SRAVANA-BELAGOLA

In keeping with the established practice, the 1008 Gold and Silver Kalasas meant for the �Mahamastakabhisheka� ceremony were made available to the devotees through public auction and sale. The first Gold Kalasa of great honour was taken in public auction for Rs. 47,500 (as against Rs. 18,001/- and Rs. 8,001/- on the preceding two occasions in 1953 and 1940, by Shri N.K. Jinachandran of Kalapatta in Kerala.

The preliminaries of the �Mahamastakabhisheka� ceremony commenced by 15th March, 1967 and the great �Mahamastakabhisheka� was conducted in the ceremonious manner on 30th March, 1967 in the presence of Shri. S. Nijalingappa, the then Chief Minister of Mysore, Dr. K.L. Shrimali, the then Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University, the Jaina ascetics and the heads of the Jaina Mathas. Shri. N.K. Jinachandran performed the first �puja� and poured the first Kalasa of the �Abhisheka� as he had offered the highest bid. The remaining devotees who had purchased the Kalasas performed �Abhisheka� in their turn. The entire ceremonies on this day were witnessed by a huge gathering which was estimated at about 5 lakhs.

The most spectacular and memorable feature of the celebrations on the 30th of March, 1967 was �Akasa Pushpavrushi�, i.e., the showering of flowers on the Image of Bahubali from the sky. This time for the purpose of showering flowers on the Image from the sky a novel and picturesque arrangement was made by specially procuring a helicopter from the Indian Air Force. This helicopter appeared on the scene at 10.30 A.M., came near the Image, remained stationary at about 20 feet above the 57 feet high Image of Bahubali and showered multi coloured flowers on the Image. Then the helicopter performed three �Pradakshinas�, i.e., it moved three times in a circle round the Image as a mark of profound devotion, again remained stationary above the Image in a specific position and once more showered the multicoloured flowers along with huge quantities of red vermillion and saffron colour powder in succession. As these coloured flowers and powders accurately fell on the colossal Image from the air, the entire gathering of about 5 lakhs was extremely thrilled with utmost joy and mental satisfaction and spontaneously gave expression to its feelings of reverence by loud shouts of �Shri Bahubali Bhagawan Ki Jai�, i.e., �victory to Lord Bahubali�. This �Akasa Pushpavrushti� was the most distinctive and unique event in the 1000 years history of �Mahamastakabhisheka� celebrations. It was indeed a sight for the gods to see and the angels to admire.

For the first the Government of India took a film of the entire �Mahamastakabhisheka� celebrations and this Indian News Reel film No. G. 65 was shown all over India from 7th to 13th April 1967. Similarly, some American and other foreign companies televised the different aspects of the �Mahamastakabhisheka� celebrations in their countries.

In accordance with the established practice, the �All India Digambara Jaina Mahasabha� held its 72nd session on 31st March, and 1st April, 1967. In his inaugural speech, Dr. K.L. Shrimali, the former Minister for Education, Government of India and the then Vice-Chancellor of Mysore University, made a fervent plea for the scientific study of different aspects of Jainology for establishing �Jaina Chairs� in different Universities for this purpose. It was also resolved in the session to organise a seminar of the heads of prominent Jaina educational institutions in India so as to evolve a uniform educational policy and programme among the Jainas. On the same lines, special sessions of �Siddhanta Samrakshini Sabha�, �All India Mahila Parishad�, and �All India Digambara Jain Tirthkshetra Committee, Bombay� were also held.

6. On the 22nd of February, 1981 A.D. : The programme of the �Mahamastakabhisheka� festival has been held in February-March, 1981. The festival began from 9th February, 1981 and continued upto the 20th of March, 1981. The great �Abhisheka� ceremony has taken place on 22nd February, 1981. An extra ordinary special signi ficance of historical nature has been attached to this ceremony as it marks the 1000th anniversary of the consecration of the Image of Bahubali, which was performed on Sunday 13th March, 981 A.D. under the leadership of Military General and Chief Minister Chamunda-Raya who had installed this colossal image on the top of the Vindhyagiri hill at Sravana-Belagola. Obviously the preparations for the festival were made on an unprecedented grand scale in every respect. For this purpose a high power Committee termed as �Bhagwan Bahubali Pratishthapana Sahasrabdi and �Mahamastakabhisheka� Committee� was constituted under the Chairmanship of the most senior and respected Jaina leader Sahu Shriyans Prasand Jain of Bombay who is also the founder-President of All-India Digambara Jaina Mahasamiti, Delhi. Further, for looking after the religious affairs of the festival the Government of Karnataka, as per established practice, had appointed a �Religious Committee� with His Holiness Charukirti Bhattaraka Swami of Jaina Matha, Sravana-Belagola as its Chairman and Seth Lalchand Hirachand of Bombay (who is the President of �All-India Digambara Jaina Tirtha Kshetra Committee, Bombay) as its Vice-Chairman. The Government of Karnataka, who have been managing such festivals from 1940 onwards, have been taking particular interest in this historic festival and as such have sanctioned five crores of rupees for arranging these celebrations and have out several improvements of permanent nature at Sravana-Belagola. �The General Committee� appointed by the Government of Karnataka had been looking after all these works of permanent constructions and development.

The entire work of planning and directing the schemes of 1000th Image Consecration Anniversary Celebrations� and of �Mahamastakabhisheka� Ceremony was carried out under the superb guidance and personal supervision of the world renowned Jaina saint Elacharya Munishree Vidyanand Maharaj, who had been specially invited for these memorable celebrations by the Chief Minister of Karnataka in view of the fact that the Munishree was the main architect behind the successful completion of the �Bhagwan Mahavira 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava was celebrations organised throughout the world during the year 1974-75A.D. As a result, this historic festival of world-importance was arranged on a huge scale and for the first time the Prime Minister of India, Smt. Indira Gandhi, along with other Central Ministers and Chief Ministers of States, attended the celebrations on 21st Feb, 1981 and showered flowers from the helicopter on Bhagwan Bahubali. It was really a very happy coincidence of history that just as Siddhanta Chakravarti Acharya Nemichandra, who gave inspiration to his favourite disciple Chamunda-Raya to install the colossal image of Bahubali, guided the �Praishthhapana Mahotsava�, i.e., the consecration ceremony, of the Image of Bahubali held on the 13th of March, 981 A.D., similarly Siddhanta-Chakravarti Elacharya Munishree Vidyanand Maharaj, who has been effectively spreading to the entire world the message of non-violence, self-control, renunciation and universal peace preached by Bahubali, i.e., has guided the �Pratishthapana Sahasrabdi Mahotsava�, the Consecration�s 1000th Anniversary Ceremony, of the Image of Bahubali held on the 22nd of February, 1981 A.D.

In accordance with the time honoured traditional, practice, the 1008 �Kalasas� meant for the �Mahamastakabhisheka� ceremony were made available to the devotees through sale at fixed prices. The 1008 Kalasas had been divided into eight different categories and had been priced at different rates as follows :


 

Serial No.	Type of Kalasa	Number of  Kalasa	Amount to be paid for each Kalasa Rs.
1.	Satabdi Kalasa	10	1,00,000/-
2.	Divya Kalasa	4	50,000/-
3.	Ratna Kalasa	4	25,000/-
4.	Suvarna Kalasa	200	11,000/-
5.	Rajat Kalasa	200	5,000/-
6.	Tamra Kalasa	140	2,500/-
7.	Kasya Kalasa	200	1,000/-
8.	Gullikay Ajgi Kalasa	250	500/-
		1,008