The Shivling is 33 feet in height and weighs 210 tonnes.
Over a decade after it was mooted, the world's largest Shivling was installed at the under-construction Virat Ramayan Mandir on Saturday, January 17, 2026, a day before Mauni Amavasya.
Site of the world's largest Ramayan temple, the installation saw thousands of pilgrims, mostly local residents from adjacent towns and villages, join the event in Bihar's East Champaran district.
Priests from Ayodhya's Ram mandir, Varanasi's Vishwanath mandir and Patna's Mahavir mandir performed Vedic rituals, chanted mantras and conducted special prayers amidst the showering of flowers from a helicopter.
At 33 feet in height and weighing 210 tonnes, it is touted as the world's largest Shivling.
"People have not seen such a big Shivling," said N K Singh, an engineer involved in the temple's construction.
Two cranes from Rajasthan and Bhopal helped install the Shivling, Singh added.
Shivling traveled 2,500 km from Tamil Nadu to Bihar
An official of the Patna-based Mahavir Mandir Trust, that is constructing the temple, said the Shivling was brought from Tamil Nadu on a special 96-wheel hydraulic trailer.
It took 45 days to reach Gopalganj in Bihar, covering a distance of around 2,500 km and passing through Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
The Shivling was decorated with flowers specially brought from Cambodia and Kolkata, apart from which a truckload of local flowers traditionally used in prayers and festivals was also used.
A special 18 foot-long garland of flowers, dhatura and belpatra adorned the Shivling.
The brain behind the Shivling and temple was Acharya Kishor Kunal, a former Indian Police Service officer who died in December 2024.
It was his dream project to install the Shivling and build the temple, and he went about mobilising resources in the post-Covid pandemic.
"The Shivling was carved from a single massive black granite stone in Pattikadu area near Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu. It took nearly 10 years of hard work by master artisans and craftsmen, at a cost of Rs 3 crore," an official said.
With the Shivling in place, the ongoing construction work on the temple is likely to speed up and it is expected to be ready by 2030.
As per the proposal finalised by Acharya Kunal a few years ago, the Virat Ramayan Mandir will be 1,080 feet long and 540 feet wide. It will have 22 shrines, 18 spires, and a 270 foot-high main spire.
Feature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff
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