Thousand pillar basadi (Jain temple) in Moodbidri in Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
‘Airavata’, a three-metre-tall and 800-kg mechanical elephant, will be unveiled at the thousand pillar Jain temple, Tribhuvana Tilaka Chudamani Basadi, at Moodbidri in Dakshina Kannada on Friday.Gifted by actors and mother-daughter duo Raveena Tandon and Rasha Thadani, and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals India (PETA), the mechanical elephant will be unveiled at 3 p.m., a release said.It will be the world’s first Jain temple to have a mechanical elephant, the release claimed.First in Mangaluru region‘Airavata’ is a gift to the temple in honour of the temple’s commitment to never hiring or keeping real elephants, it said.Using mechanical elephants, real elephants can remain with their families in their forest homes and be spared the suffering of being constantly chained, controlled with weapons, and deprived of everything natural and important to them, it said.It will be the 12th mechanical elephant donated by PETA India to temples, the first in the Mangaluru region, and a landmark fifth to be embraced by a temple in Karnataka, the release said.25 years of Jain mutt seer’s PattabhishekaThe elephant will be gifted on the occasion of the silver jubilee year of the Pattabhisheka of the Jain mutt seer in Moodbidri. It will be unveiled by 108 Gulab Bhushan Muni Maharaj in the presence of Charukeerthi Bhattaraka Pattacharya Panditacharyavarya, the seer of Moodbidri Jain Mutt.A ‘mangala vadhiyam’ performance will follow the inaugural ceremony. Published - August 28, 2025 12:51 pm IST
