Kota to Set Record With 221-Foot Ravana, Surpassing Delhi’s 210-Foot Effigy

This year, the world's tallest Ravana effigy will be burned in Kota, Rajasthan, on Dussehra. After nearly four months of diligent work, Ambala artisan Tejendra Chauhan has constructed a 221-foot Ravana weighing 13,500 kilograms. The project cost around ₹4.4 million. Notably, Delhi currently holds the record for burning a 210-foot Ravana. 

The effigy was transported to Kota's Dussehra ground on Monday night. Vivek Rajvanshi, president of the Dussehra Mela Committee, announced that Kota's name will be recorded in the Asia Book of Records and the India Book of Records for the effigy.

Four teams from Delhi, including representatives from Asia Records and the India Book, arrived in Kota to measure the effigy and verify other details. The effigy was erected at the Dussehra ground with two cranes, with police deployed for security. Tejendra Chauhan explained that the face of the effigy is 25 feet tall and made of fiberglass.

The head is crowned with a 58-foot tall, colorful, light-adorned crown. The sword measures 50 feet, and the shoes are 40 feet long. The effigy contains 25 remote-controlled firework trigger points. The effigies of Meghnath and Kumbhakaran are each 60 feet tall, with all three effigies surrounded by green firecrackers—15,000 on Ravana, and 4,000 each on Meghnath and Kumbhakaran.