Bangalore, Aug. 9: The veil that shrouded a statue of ancient Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar for 18 years lifted today in Bangalore amid calls for better ties between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

The statue of the poet-philosopher who wrote Thirukkural, perhaps the most revered work in Tamil literature and believed to date back 2,000 years, has survived many obstacles, including the Cauvery water disputes, anti-Tamil riots and even a Kannada icon’s kidnapping by forest brigand Veerappan.

Even today, police had to cordon the entire Ulsoor area, which has a large Tamil-speaking population, as Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi unveiled the statue by remote control from a public meeting 500m away.

Pro-Kannada organisations had called a bandh and threatened to disrupt the event, but the police pre-empted them by rounding up several of their leaders.

The event also ended Karunanidhi’s 18-year-old oath of not participating in public events in Bangalore until the statue was unveiled. Karunanidhi will unveil a statue of 16th-century Kannada poet Sarvajna in Chennai on August 13 in reciprocation.

Bangalore civic authorities had sanctioned the Thiruvalluvar statue, mooted by Bangalore’s Tamil organisations, in 1991 but the unveiling was challenged in court by a pro-Kannada organisation. The civic body later withdrew its permission citing possible law-and-order problems.

As a compromise, it was suggested that Tamil Nadu install a statue of Sarvajna in Chennai but the statue commissioned by Karnataka went into cold storage in Bangalore.

Veerappan deepened the controversy by asking Karnataka to speed up the unveiling as one of the conditions for the release of Kannada actor Rajkumar whom he had kidnapped in July 2000. Then chief minister S.M. Krishna had agreed but the unveiling never happened.