KOLAR, 17 FEB

The newly built wooden chariot that was drawn using over two-century-old stone wheels at Sri Lakshmi Narayanaswamy Temple at Holur in Kolar district rolled on during Rathothsava on Friday.

The 25-feet chariot was built using crowdfunding with octogenarian devotee Maruthi of Jawali family and Shanthamani of Sahukar Sesha Iyengar family contributing a lion’s share of the funds.

The temple was founded by great philosopher Sri Vyasaraja around 500 years ago and the car festival was an annual feature in the village for centuries. The village was previously called Vyasarayapuri after the great philosopher. However, at some point in time, the 250-year-old stone wheels were replaced with wooden ones; and the former were left unused, said Krishna Prasad, a seer.

As the wheels were left unused, the devotees came together to build a wooden chariot to bring the age-old stone wheels back to glory. The new chariot was built using well-seasoned Matti wood and iron sleeves were used to prevent corrosion of the wheels, said Prasad, a driver in the village. Each wheel has a diameter of over four feet and the girth is around half a foot.

HR Ravi of Javali family said his great-grandfather Srinivasa Iyengar used to say that hundreds of people from various villages used to pull the chariot. HS Ramaraj of Sahukar family, who resides in Bengaluru, said his forefathers were the seva karthas of Kashi Yathre and Kalyanothsava of the temple, while the Javali family members were the seva karthas of the car festival.

Kolar MP S Muniswamy took part in the Rathotsava on Friday along with BJP leaders and assured the villagers that he would assist them in the development of the temple. —Salar News