India: Kashi Vishwanath temple gets 60 kg gold from anonymous donor

Varanasi: An anonymous donor has donated 60kg gold to the Kashi Vishwanath Temple (KVT) and 37kg of this has been used on the inner walls of the sanctum sanctorum.

The pilgrims visiting the temple got glimpses of the gold plating on walls while offering prayers through ‘jharokha darshan’ (seeing the deity from outside the doors). The visuals released by the temple administration when Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered prayers on Sunday gave a broader look.

Divisional Commissioner Deepak Agrawal said:“The temple has received 60 kilograms of gold from an anonymous donor. Of it, 37kg has been used for the gold covering of the inner walls of the sanctum sanctorum and the remaining 23kg gold will be used for covering the lower portion of the golden dome of the main KVT structure.”

The donor had come in contact with the temple authorities, months before the formal opening of Kashi Vishwanath Dham by the Prime Minister on December 13, 2021.

Following his offer of donation, the temple authorities had also finalised the plan that the donated gold would be used for gold plating of the inner wall of the sanctum sanctorum and also the lower portion of the main temple dome.

Agrawal said:“A Delhi-based firm was engaged to complete this work. The artisans of the firm did the casting of the artistic walls of the sanctum sanctorum with copper sheets. After fixing it with the wall, the process of gold plating was done.”

This is the second major work of gold covering of any part of the temple after the 18th century.

According to the history of KVT, following the reconstruction of the temple by Indore’s queen Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar in 1777, Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab had donated about one ton of gold, which was used for covering two domes of KVT.

After the 18th century, the major work for expanding the shrine area of KVT was ensured by the Prime Minister after the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in Uttar Pradesh in 2017.

The project of over Rs9 billion was launched in the name of KV Dham (corridor), under which over 300 buildings were purchased and removed to expand the shrine area from 2,700 square feet to 5 lakh square feet by giving it a direct connectivity with the river Ganga through Jalasen, Manikarnika and Lalita ghats.

Gold plated ‘kalasams’ atop TN Siva temple stolen

Meanwhile People of Vridhachalam in Tamil Nadu’s Cuddalore district on Tuesday morning woke up to a shocking news of three gold-plated ‘kalasams’ atop the famous Viruthagireeswar Siva temple at Vridachalam in Cudallore district being stolen on Maha Shivaratri. Each ‘kalasam’, weighed more than 300kg.

The temple is considered as one of the four top Siva shrines among the 1008 in the country.

Vridhachalam Police have registered a case and the investigation is on.

While speaking to IANS, the District Superintendent of Police said: “We have examined the CCTV footage in the temple and have found proper leads. We are zeroing in on the culprits and will apprehend them soon.”

The Viruthagireeswar temple at Cuddalore is believed to be more than 2,500 years old.