By Matters India Reporter
Pune: Statues of Jesus and Moses, among others, have found a place in a city-based Maharashtra Institute of Technology (MIT) which is building the largest brick and mortar dome in the world.
On March 13, Pune Bishop Thomas Dabre and Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX Secretary General, General of Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, New Delhi, paid a courtesy call to Vishwanath Karad, a Pune-based educationist, who has set up a huge MIT Peace University in Pune on 100 acres of land donated by the family of Raj Kapoor, an Indian film actor, producer and director of Indian cinema.
Karad is the founder and director of MIT and a professor of mechanical engineering.
“Karad is now putting up a prayer hall for peace and harmony with giant size statues of Jesus, Moses, Vivekananda, and other spiritual leaders as well as statues of scientists and intellectuals. Bishop Dabre and I were amazed at the construction of one of the biggest domes in the world,” said Bishop Mascarenhas.
The dome on MIT’s design school campus near Loni Kalbhor is getting ready.
The brick and mortar dome, spread across 160 feet in diameter and 190 feet high, will cover a 65,000-square feet complex. As of now, the Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence, Italy, has the largest octagonal brick and mortar dome in the world.
At the Loni Kalbhor campus, the dome will include a multi-faith prayer room and a library. Engineers associated with the project say the structure can accommodate 7,000 people at a time.
The dome is a vision based on the Vedic principle which says that the world is one family. In accordance with the idea, there will also be statues of some of the greatest thinkers in the history of mankind and literature about them in and around the complex.
‘Temple of Humanity’ or Viswadharmi Sriram Manavatha Bhavan, which will give equal space to all the eight major religions. The design envisages a huge central dome of about 360 ft. diameter covering a circular central World Peace Prayer Hall.
At the centre of the hall is a statue of Lord Ram. Eight places of worship in eight directions radiate around the perimeter of the Central World Peace Prayer Hall.
The radiating structures will include a Mosque’ along with a “Holy Quran Dnyan Bhavan” representing Islam, Church along with a “Holy Bible Dnyan Bhavan”, Vihar’ along with a “Holy Dhammapad Dnyan Bhavan” representing Buddhism, Dehrasar’ along with “Holy Agam Dnyan Bhavan” representing Jainism, Synagogue’ along with “Holy Torah Dnyan Bhavan” representing Jewism, Agiary’ along with “Holy Avestha Dnyan Bhavan” representing Zoroastrianism, Gurudwara’ along with “Holy Shri Guru Granth Saheb Dnyan Bhavan” and also a structure to represent Bahai, Tao, Shinto, Zen, Confucian.
It is estimated that the distance between each religious place of worship around the perimeter of the Central World Peace Prayer Hall will not be less than 450-500 feet.