Yesterday I visited the Virinchipuram Markabandheswarar temple, near Vellore. I visited this temple some 10 years back. I think recently they have done kumbabishekam, because the gopuram and other parts of the temple were painted in multi colours. The temple is mainly famous for the artistic Kalyana Mandapam.
As usual, in the name of renovation, the temple has been painted all over. they would have done a sand blasting, because the kalyana mandapam looked like a new stone structure and the sculptures have lost their sharpness. The outer layer must have been chipped apart. This mandapam is very much similar to the one in Vellore Jalakandeswarar temple. Legend says that the british wanted to disassemble the mandapam and take it to England and marked the structure with numbers to reassemble, but the ship that came to pick it up sank mid way and so they gave up. This shows the artistic beauty of the sculptures there...
Was painful to see the ignorance.. :(
On the other side, the temple was a bit crowded and there were lots of shops in the temple entrance. 10 years back, except my family and the gurukal, there was not even a 'e kakka' around.
Again - linking to the other thread - temples do improve the economy of the local populace and our kings were not fools :)
One more interesting thing I noticed is...Thanks to Vijay....I found a similar sculpture as in Perur...Arjuna's tapas which is very similar to that of perur...Arjuna standing on one leg...the posture, the fold of leg, the angle every thing is a carbon copy of Perur..but the needle is missing. Probably the sculptor didnt notice the original well to notice the needle :) A pillar in the mun mandapam as well as the two kalyana mandapams has this piece along with various other beautiful scupltures. The pillar has this on one side, the fight with vedan on another depicting the story.
Vijays posts helps me to identify the stories from our epics...even stories which he didnt post...it gives the knowledge of how to decipher a sculpture and relate it to the story we already know. I feel proud when I can identify stories and narrate it to my daughter...
What surprised me is the striking similarity of the arjuna's tapas...remarkable. (i tried to capture it in my mobile, but it didnt come out clearly. Will try to download and share)
Perur us near Coimbatore. Should be less than 10KM from Coimbatore city. Has a mandapam with huge sculptures carved on the pillars. Delight to watch them.