CHENNAI: It could turn out to be the tallest modern-day statue in Tamil Nadu , or perhaps even the country. Be it a gesture of supplication or political one-upmanship, a statue of ‘ Tamil Thai ’ (Mother of Tamil), taller than even the 133-foot-high Thiruvalluvar statue at Kanyakumari, built during an earlier DMK regime, will soon tower over Madurai, a city synonymous with Tamil language. Chief minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday announced in the assembly that the grand statue would cost her government Rs 100 crore and would, symbolically and perhaps even in physical dimensions, resemble the Statue of Liberty in the US.

Jayalalithaa said the statue was aimed at spreading the culture, tradition, literary treasures and architectural excellence of Tamils. The statue of saint-poet Thiruvalluvar in the sea off Kanyakumari in the state’s southern end, constructed at a cost of more than Rs 6 crore, is the tallest in the state now and took nine years to erect. The height of the statute alone (without the pedestal) is 95 feet, and the total weight is about 7,000 tonnes. “The Tamil Thai statute will be taller than the Thiruvalluvar statute,” said a senior official in the department of Tamil development.

“We will identify a location in Madurai for the statue soon,” he said, adding it would be sculpted from high quality stone. Like the Thiruvalluvar statute, the outer layer of ‘Tamil Thai’ would be covered with fine granite stone, the official said. The Thiruvalluvar statue was inaugurated by then chief minister M Karunanidhi in January 2000.

In the assembly, Jayalalithaa said parks resembling the five terrains – kurinji (mountains), marudham (agriculture land), mullai (forests), neidhal (sea shore) and paalai (desert) - will come up around the statue. When a curious rebel DMDK member wanted to know if the Tamil Thai statute would be similar to the Thiruvalluvar statue in terms of its size, ministers sitting in the front row gestured it would be much bigger.

It is not unusual for political parties to attempt to build massive statues that would reflect the cultural ethos of the state to which they belong and to assert their political identity. In Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena wanted to put up a massive statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji in the sea off Marine Drive in Mumbai. But it gave up the proposal due to the practical difficulties of erecting a statue in the sea.

In Madurai, the big question worrying certain sections is whether Tamil Thai would tower over the city’s famous Meenakshi Amman temple, whose tallest tower is 160 feet high. VHP district president Chinmaya Somasundaram, who has consistently opposed highrise buildings in the temple’s vicinity, told TOI, “No structure, which is taller than the temple gopuram, can come up within one kilometre radius of the shrine.” Until 1994, no building was allowed to surpass the height of the heritage structure. But, as highrise buildings became unavoidable in a developing city, the government in 1997 passed an order saying that buildings more than nine metres tall should not come up within the one-kilometre radius of the Meenakshi Amman temple. But, in the district administration’s own words, violations are rampant. “A Tamil Thai statue is appropriate considering that Madurai was the seat of Tamil Sangam,” said Somasundaram. The city already boasts of a small statue of Tamil Thai near Tammukkam grounds in the city.