Arun Yogiraj is an Indian sculptor and artist. He has sculpted various famous statues, including the 30-foot tall Subhash Chandra Bose statue installed at the India Gate in New Delhi, the 12-foot Adi Shankaracharya statue at Kedarnath, the white Amritashila statue of Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in Mysore, and the 15-foot-tall statue of . – One foot tall sculpture of BR Ambedkar in Mysore. On January 22, 2024, his sculpture “Ram Lalla” was installed at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Wiki/Biography
Arun Yogiraj was born in 1983 in Mysore, Karnataka (40 years old; as of 2023). He pursued his MBA degree from the University of Mysore. He worked as an intern in the human resources department of a private company. In 2008, he quit his job to become a full-time sculptor.
appearance
Height (approximately): 5′10″
Hair color: black
Eye color: black
family
He comes from a family of five generations of sculptors from Mysore, Karnataka.
Parents and siblings
His mother’s name was Saraswati. His father BS Yogiraj Shilpi is a sculptor. He has received several awards including the ‘Amarashilpi Jakanachari’ and the Rajyothsava Award. He passed away in 2021 when Arun Yogiraj was constructing the Netaji statue.
Arun Yogiraj with his parents in front of Adi Shankaracharya statue
He has a brother named Suryaprakash and a sister named Chetana. His brother Suryaprakash is also a sculptor.
Arun Yogiraj’s sister
Arun Yogiraj’s younger brother
wife and children
His wife is Vijetha Mohan. He has a daughter and a son.
Arun Yogiraj’s wife and son
Arun Yogiraj and his daughter
other relatives
His grandfather Basavanna Shilpi was also a famous sculptor. He was protected by the then King of Mysore.
Arun Yogiraj’s grandfather (right) presents a statue to Jawaharlal Nehru
sculptor
30 feet tall statue of Subhash Chandra Bose
Arun Yogiraj sculpted the 30-foot-tall statue of Subhash Chandra Bose, which is installed on the canopy behind Amar Jawan Jyoti, India Gate, New Delhi. The statue was installed during the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ 2022 to commemorate the 75th Independence Day and the 125th birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose. Yogiraj carved the statue using jet black jade granite stone brought to Delhi from Telangana. Its design was provided by the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), part of the Federal Ministry of Culture. The artist led a team of 48 sculptors from across India who spent 75 days creating the Netaji statue, which is 28 feet tall (not including the base), 10 feet long and 8 feet wide.
Arun Yogiraj (in white shirt) in front of Subhash Chandra Bose statue
12 ft Adi Shankaracharya Statue
In 2021, Arun Yogiraj carved a 12-foot-tall 3D statue of Adi Shankaracharya, which was installed at Kedarnath. Adi Shankaracharya was an eighth-century Indian mystic and philosopher born in Kerala who had samadhi in Kedarnath. It took Yogiraj and his team of seven sculptors nearly nine months to complete the statue. He used chlorite schist to create his sculptures. He revealed in an interview that he used to work 14-15 hours a day to make the statue. The 12-foot-tall, 35-ton statue was built to restore the samadhi of Adi Shankaracharya, which was washed away in the Kedarnath tragedy in June 2013.
Statue of Adi Shankaracharya by Arun Yogiraj
21 feet tall statue of Hanuman
Yogiraj carved a 21 feet tall statue of Hanuman which was placed in the Rama temple at Chunchanakatte in Mysore. It took the artist 15 months to complete the statue, which is carved in the Hoysala style. The statue was installed on May 20, 2022.
21-foot-tall Hanuman statue by Arun Yogiraj
statue of ordinary people
In 2020, he created a life-size statue of “Everyman”, one of the most popular works of the late cartoonist RK Laxman. The statue, nearly five and a half feet tall, was originally made of clay and later molded from fiber. The artist was commissioned by the Mysore Railway Authority to create this artwork. Yogiraj spent seven days completing the clay model and another two days making the fiber version of the statue. The statue is displayed at the Malgudi Museum in Shivamogga, Karnataka. Talking about the statue in an interview, Arun Yogiraj said that both RK Laxman and RK Narayan are from Mysore and hence he had an emotional connect with the artwork.
Arun Yogiraj and the “Ordinary Man” statue
Statue of late King Jayachamarajendra Vaidyar
In 2016, Arun Yogiraj sculpted the statue of the late King Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, the last ruler of the Mysore royal family. The statue was installed in Hardinge Circle, Mysuru, in April 2016. The statue was completed ahead of the wedding of Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar, the great-grandson of late King Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar. The artist used white marble imported from Austria to create the 10-foot-tall, 6-foot-wide, 4.5-foot-long statue. It took Yogiraj and a team of nine sculptors nearly five months to complete the statue.
Statue of Late King Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar by Arun Yogiraj
Ram Lala statue
In 2023, Arun Yogiraj’s sculpture ‘Ram Lalla’ was selected by the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust for installation at the Ram Temple in Ayodhya. In an interview, he revealed that the trust asked three sculptors to create a 51-inch-tall statue of Lord Ram that should look like a five-year-old child. They also acquired various types of stones from places like Nepal, Kalkara in North Kannada district, HD Kote in Mysore district and Makrana in Rajasthan. He said he chose HD Kote’s Krishna Shila stone, which does not react with any liquids. He added that he visited some schools to see what five-year-olds looked like. He said it took him two months to imagine the statue and more than six months to create it.
The Idol of Ram Lalla By Arun Yogiraj
Some of his other famous artworks include the White Amritashla Statue of Swami Ramakrishna Paramahansa in Mysore, the 15 feet tall BR Ambedkar Sculpture in Mysore, Six feet tall monolithic statue of Nandi, six feet tall statue of Banashankari Devi, bronze statue of Sri. UR Rao installed at ISRO, Bangalore and installed 5 feet Garuda idol in Mysore.
Statue of Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa by Arun Yogiraj
Awards, Honors, Achievements
- 2014 Government of India Young Talented Artist Award, South District
- Mysore District Administration Narvadi Award 2020
- Honorary Member, Karnataka Crafts Council 2021
- Shilpa Kousthubha Society of Sculptors
- Rajyothsava Award from Mysore District Administration
- Honored by the Chief Minister of Karnataka
- Awarded the honor of Mysore District Sports Academy
- Honored by AmaraShilpi Jakanacharya Trust
- Named “KAYAKAYOGI” by VISTAA NEWS channel in 2022
Arun Yogiraj after being awarded the title of ‘KAYAKAYOGI’
Facts/Trivia
- After his idol was chosen to be installed at the Rama temple in Ayodhya, he was felicitated and appreciated by several prominent personalities, including former Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa.
- He has participated in several sculpture camps at the state and national level.
- He revealed in an interview that his mother did not approve of him inheriting the family carving tradition earlier, but later accepted it.
- He often holds seminars to teach students traditional carving methods.
- He abandoned the project he had received from the Czech Republic to complete the statue of Adi Shankaracharya.
- Apart from India, Yogiraj has received orders for sculptures from several countries including the Netherlands, the United States, Australia, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom and Germany.
- The artist and his father used to run a sculpture school called Kasyap Shilpa Kalanikethana in Mysore.
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education