An elderly woman being carried in a doli. Doliwallahs charge Rs 150 for pilgrims who cannot climb the 650 steps of the Vindhyagiri to see the Bahubali statue. Picture by Villa images

Shravanabelagola (Karnataka), Feb. 8: At 10.34 this morning, the millennium’s first Mahamastakabhisheka of Bahubali began with members of the Patni family from Rajasthan pouring the first kalash (pot) of holy water on the head of the statue of the king who took sanyas.

Then the others followed, pouring coconut water, sugarcane juice, milk and sandal paste as flowers rained amid chanting of Jain hymns.

Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims today flocked to the ancient Jain hamlet of Shravanabelagola for the 86th, 12-yearly Mahamastakabishekha of Bahubali ? a symbol of peace and renunciation.

Sculpted in AD 981, the 58.8-foot statue ? the world’s tallest made from a single stone ? stands atop the Vindhyagiri, a climb of 650 steps from the foot of the hill.

The 12-day bathing ritual involves 21 varieties of liquids and 108 pots of water from different rivers in the country. The last time it took place was in 1993.

While the more fortunate ? some 6,000 of them ? could watch the inaugural ceremony from a three-tier platform, lakhs of devotees saw it on giant screens set up below the Vindhyagiri. Five television channels beamed the ceremony live.

The rituals leading to the bath started around 9 am after the agrodaka (holy water) left the Digambar Jain Mutt premises.

Shravanabelagola pontiff Swasthishri Charukeerthi Bhattaraka reached the hilltop first and performed the kalash sthapana vidhi (ritual of setting the pot) in front of the statue. He filled a giant kalash with rice and placed a silver coconut on top of it. This indicated the commencement of the ceremony.

Copper vessels adorned with leaves and coconuts were placed along with statues of the Jain teacher Adinath and his sons Bharata and Bahubali as part of the ceremony to commemorate Bahubali’s renunciation of the throne.

At the auspicious moment, 10.34, Acharya Vardhamana Sagar, who arrived with 200 monks, lifted the first kalash on the shoul- ders of Ashok Kumar Patni, who had donated Rs 1.08 crore for a children’s hospital at Shravanabelagola.