Devotees protest work at Parthasarathy temple Please support the Noble Cause of Preserving the Parthasarathy Temple, Heritage and its original structure. As mark of Protest a group-chanting of Vishnu Sahasranamam is Planned on 25 Aug 2012 at 6 p.m in the Main Entrance of the Koil
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Devotees of one of Indiai’s oldest temples, the Sri Parthasarathy Swamy Temple,Thiruvallikeni, Chennai are up in arms against construction by the Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department inside the temple prakara. The department laid new granite stones and built a new shed.
They say that the shed was preventing them from having darshan of the Anandha vimanam (tower over the sanctum of Sri Parthasarathy Swamy sannidhi), Vedavalli Thayar Vimanam and Varadhar Sannidhi Vimanam over the pradakshina course.
“Having darshan of vimanams is equivalent to having darshan of the presiding deity. Now if we want to have darshan of vimanams, we will have to go to one of the buildings on the mada veedhis and view them from a distance,” said a senior citizen.
T.R. Ramesh, president, Temple Worshipers Society, and general secretary (legal affairs) of Janata Party, said the HR&CE had control only over the administration of temple properties and not the idols or jewellery.
Advocate M. Vivekanandan said the department was not allowed to make any new innovations under the HR&CE Act. They can only preserve what is there. He said while more recent constructions including the Ripon Building, Fort St. George and Victoria Public Hall were being protected as monuments and every care was being taken in their maintenance and repairs, nothing has been done to preserve this temple, which has been in existence since time immemorial.
RTI activist V.S. Rajkumar said over 15,000 residents had signed a petition stating that the works must not be taken up. But the department had gone ahead and completed the construction.
The Parthasarathy Temple is an 8th century Hindu Vaishnavite temple dedicated to the god Krishna, located at Triplicane, Chennai, India. The temple is glorified in the Divya Prabandha, the early medieval Tamil literature canon of the Alvar saints from the 6th–9th centuries CE and is classified as among the 108 Divya Desams dedicated to Vishnu.
It was originally built by the Pallavas in the 8th century by king Narasimhavarman I. The temple has four of the incarnations or avatars of Vishnu: Narasimha, Rama, Varaha and Krishna.
The temple is one of the oldest structures in Chennai. There are shrines for Vedhavalli Thayaar, Ranganatha, Rama, Gajendra Varadharaja Swamy, Narasimha, Andal, Anjaneya, Alvars, Ramanuja, Swami Manavala Mamunigal and Vedanthachariar. The temple subscribes to Vaikhanasa agama and follows Thenkalai tradition. There are separate entrances for the Krishna and Narasimha temples. The gopuram (towers) and mandapas (pillars) are decorated with elaborate carvings,[a standard feature of South Indian Temple Architecture.
History
The temple was originally built by the Pallavas in the 8th century, subsequently expanded by Cholas and later by the Vijayanagara kings in the 15th century.The temple has several inscriptions dating from the 8th century in Tamil and Telugu presumably from the period of Dantivarman, who was a Vishnu devotee. Thirumangai Alvar, the 9th century alvar also attributes the building of temple to the Pallava king.
The temple has two gopurams (tower) each in eastern and western directions.The temple has five vimanams namely Anatha Nilaya Vimanam over Parthasarathy shrine, Ranganathar Sannathy vimanam, Ramar sannathy vimanam, Narasimha sannidhi vimanam and Andal Sannithi vimanam.The temple tank called "Thiruallikeni" is derived from the place where Vishnu's consort Lakshmi herself was born as Vedavalli to Sage Bhrigu. Join us and Support the Noble Cause