Bharat Maatha Temple, Kanyakumari
Bharat
Maatha Temple is a Temple dedicated to Mother India located in the premises of
the Vivekananda Kendra in Kanyakumari Town in Kanyakumari district of
Tamilnadu. This 12,000 sq. ft temple for Bharat Maatha was built at the cost of
15 crores. In the first floor of the 'Bharat Maatha Sadhanam' is a 12-ft bronze
statue of Swami Vivekananda in Thapas posture and the drawings on the concept
of Motherhood, depicting five mothers-Goddess Parvathi Devi, the mother of Lord
Muruga, Shakunthala, mother of Bharat, after whose name the country has got its
name, Jijabhai, the mother of Chatrapathi Sivaji, the spiritual mother of Swami
Vivekananda, Sharadha Devi, besides picture of the contemporary woman Hindu
saint, Mata Amritanandamayi.
The
'Bharat Maatha Sadhanam' too has embossed paintings of 'Akhand Bharat' and a
three-dimensional picture of Lord Padmanabaswami in 'Ananda sayanam (Lord
Vishnu in reclining posture on serpent). The Bharat Maatha temple also has a
mini-theatre and the entire premises is being powered by a solar power
generation system. This Temple also has Ramayana Darshan, a pictorial
exhibition of Valmiki Ramayana in 108 wooden panels. Each panel measuring 24 sq.
ft. depicts an important episode in the epic in mural and oil paintings. There
is a 27 ft high granite statue of Veera Hanuman located at the entrance of the
Ramayana Darshan. The hanuman statue made of a single granite stone has been
placed on a nine-ft high peetam.
The
Temple is located at about 3 Kms from Kanyakumari, 2.5 Kms from Kanyakumari Bus
Stand, 1 Km from Kanyakumari Railway Station, 13 Kms from Suchindram, 20 Kms
from Nagercoil, 24 Kms from Aralvaimozhi, 21 Kms from Thovalai and 103 Kms from
Thiruvananthapuram. Nearest Railway Station is located at Kanyakumari and
Nearest Airport is located at Thiruvananthapuram.