MLA Vinay Bhaskar participates in Mahavira Jayanthi celebrations in Hanamkonda 

West MLA Dasyam Vinay Bhaskara long with Jain community members participated in the Mahavir Jayanthi celebrations on the Aggalayya Gutta in Hanamkonda

Hanamkonda: West MLA Dasyam Vinay Bhaskar said that the Hanamkonda was a great spiritual centre of the Jains and added that the government was trying to develop the Jain sites as a spiritual tourist centre. He along with Jain community members participated in the Mahavir Jayanthi celebrations on the Aggalayya Gutta here on Tuesday.

“Hanamkonda reminds us of the mighty Kakatiyas and their administrative prowess, heroism, the temples built during their reign, and the ponds dug by them. But the city of Warangal has historical significance even before the Kakatiya as the Rashtrakutas, Chalukyas and Satavahanas ruled the region. Many structures and sculptures of that time still stand as evidence that Jainism flourished in ‘Orugallu’ 1200 years ago”, he said. Aggalayya Gutta is one such site which is now seen by anybody. The Aggalaya Gutta was selected under the HRIDAY scheme and developed in 2017 with Rs 1.50 crore rupees. The MLA offered prayers to Mahavira’s portrait at the site on the occasion of Mahavira’s Jayanthi.

---

This Jain site on the Aggalayya gutta has a 30-feet-tall engraved statue of the 16th Jain Tirthankar Shantinatha and a 13-feet-tall statue of 23rd Tirthankar Parshvanatha on a huge boulderstone on a hillock. The Shantinatha statue is the second tallest Tirthankaras statue in South India after Karnataka’s Bahubali Tirthankara, and the plan is to make it a Jain Vanam. “Statue of the Mahavira is also there in a cave on the hillock,” said archaeology and history enthusiast Aravin Arya Pakide, who accompanied the MLA during the celebrations.

The hillocok was named after a popular physician and surgeon of 11th century AD, Aggalayya, who constructed a ‘Jinalaya’ that served as a research centre for teaching doctrines of religion, medicine, and surgery, according to Aravind.