Excavated from the earth – hidden and formed over millennia under the soil through its slow cooling and underground turmoil – in this ancient processes of temperature, pressure, and upheaval of the ground the granite were formed.
Unearthed from its pristine archaeological base rock of the Veeragallu, broken and separated away from the deep unending mass of rock it was to find the human purpose of being used. It did come naturally to us to take what is the local stone, the local stone which will never know that the world had been broken into fragments by narrow domestic walls in the last few centuries. From the wilderness, now unearthed and to become the sacrificial monolith, just like the lives lost for the country.
Shaping and carrying its body to its final installation at the Veerabhumi (place of the brave martyr’s) and was an engineering feat. The following were the broad stages of the process which were photographically documented:
- The quarry at Koyira
- Shaping the Veeragallu at the quarry
- Lifting the jacks
- Moving out of the quarry
- Travelling to the Veerabhumi
- Placing the Veeragallu
- Installed for the last final surface preparation
Placing the Veeragallu © Mathew and Ghosh Architects
Placing the Veeragallu © Mathew and Ghosh Architects
Placing the Veeragallu © Mathew and Ghosh Architects
Final surface preparations for the Veergallu © Mathew and Ghosh Architects
Final surface preparations for the Veergallu © Mathew and Ghosh Architects