Hi members, This is Chandra (plasticschandra) writing. Althogh there are many good things happening in this forum, I wonder what are we doing in rebuilding the lost beauty- the temples of those great rulers? One after the other, we get daily names and names of temples which cry for attention.
You might be aware, that Dr.T.Satyamurthy, also a new member of our forum, had started the REACH foundation (Rural Education And Conservation of Heritage) recently and we have the trust now.
There are few great landmark temples which we immediately need to reconstruct:-
1. Manimangalam (near tambaram) is one. There are3 temples, of Pallavadynasty which were later retouched by Cholas too, which have some intricate carvings and land mark stone sciptures.
Many of our PS members are also members of yahoo group :
temple_cleaners (which has been registered as REACH - under the guidance of Dr.T.S). the story in the first link appeared in THE HINDU last Saturday. As myself and other REACH members were tied up with some other work, member Ram Sunder @Chandru took the initiative of visiting the place, documenting the photos, details,legends and visiting local people to gain support to work along with REACH for Uzhavaarappani and further reconstrucion work! We estimate a figure of around 20 lakhs.
The money is required to rebuild the way the temples were built those days (using same material and technology, so that they would stand against time for next 1000 years) under the guidance of ASI friends.
I wonder what are we doing. Ok, dont come to a fight that we are discussing literature, I also read them with interest. But can't we sustain our energies to atleast do our might to construct those temples, so that PSVP name can be etched in Kalvettus as contributors for renovation of these temples?
This is just tip of the ice-berg.
Another twist is - Member SB@ SPS is also the founder member of REACH!!!
Members,pls suggest ways to improve the Capital and funds we require BADLY, I beg, Badly for renovating these temples. We will account for each penny sent, spent and REACH under Dr.T.S would take responsibility of rebuilding those temples as per all agama sastras and vithi.
I also second ur thoughts..i have a reason for that..yesterday, i was travelling through vadapalani..and i saw a very old temple(deity-vengirswarar)..but i was pained to see that the walls of the temple were cluttered with film posters and the place surrounding the temple was full of urine. The walls of the temple have lost their paint..i at once wanted to bring this to the attention of our group members asking them for their advice as to what needs to be done, so that we put a stop to this kind of defiling of the sanctity of our temples..im surprised to find only that our temples are defiled..not even a single mosque or church meets this fate..why is this? I also feel that it is the hindus themselves who do this atrocity..centuries back, people kept the temples clean out of mainly fear of invoking the wrath of god..but now people have lost that fear.. also i would like to mention that in the thiagaraja temple in Tiruvarur(my native), there is a well called mookuthi kinaru..supposedly kamalambika's nose stud is inside this well..but if one looks inside that well, you will be in for a shock..lots of slippers,plastic covers..what not..i felt ashamed of myself of being a hapless, apathetic creature..but i want to change this..for this i am ready to donate whatever i can..lets start with a small dot and try to make a big beautiful kolam out of that.. Ungal ethirpaarpu veen pogathu chandra..
Dear Chandra and Mouli, These same thoughts have been bothering me for a long time. The more i see, how people take care of their monuments in the U.S, the more ashamed i become. I have been thinking about this for a long time and actually have a plan in mind. The reason the temples were taken care of in the olden days was because of contributions not just from the king but from the common man too. While exploring different ideas i stumbled upon DHAN in Madurai that uses internet to get contributions to renovate Ooranis. They use internet to reach people who live abroad and still want to maintain their roots. In our case, anyone who is interested can contribute towards a temple in memory of their loved ones. Can there be any better memorial than a commemorative plaque (future Kalvettus!!) at the temple site. Since we already have a organizational set up in REACH this seems a possibility. Follow the link for more about DHAN project and see how we can adopt it for our purpose. The gentleman who maintains the Goodnewsindia website will probably be interested in our cause and may even post our cause in his website which has a good readership. http://www.goodnewsindia.com/index.php/Supplement/article/512/P1/ People who live abroad like me can popularize this cause with their friends and people visiting temples near their areas. With 989 members and counting we already have a great network of people in our group. It might seem like a small number but remember when this group was started all we had was 10 or 12 members and we have grown this far. Please let me know if REACH would interested in such a project and the idea could be developed further with participation from eminent brains in this group.
As a small contribution one of my friends in US has committed to small amount of donation towards this activities and he has also agreed to put out a contribution link on his company(he runs his own company) website, to tap into possible donations from his friends & customers.
Let me see if I can tap into other resources & friends through him.
Arul & Others living abroad,
Can we start pledging or committing small amounts and preferably also commit to find or explore avenues for spreading this information around for a continued commitment from the NRI communit?
For starts, we can put out notices through Indian temples in overseas, for requests for contribution. This effort will definitely allow us to act.. IN fact, I had given Plastics Chandran and Madan's blog on temple's revivial for showcasing efforts that are already in that direction.. Madan & Chandra, I hope I have not transgressed any copyright violations.. :) If so, do bear with me.
What say?
One more point is that my friend is already committing himself to a 500USD contribution for the DHAN (Oorani project), which he is hoping to hand over in the month of Nov-Dec, when he is in india.
I am doing the small stuff which I can possible find and do, so no need to thank me. I am only trying to build up an initiative and tempo for others to catch on..I am of the opinion to do things and let our actions do the talk.. instead of talking forever.
I was actually thinking in lines of linking ooranis(DHAN project) to REACH(temple restoration & tank restoration).. to temples which are in rural areas.. two mangos in one stone.. what say?
then we put up an organisation with some big shots as members and had a good pledging of funds to repair the temple where there was no idol even.
but then it got stuck up in asi. and we learnt not only us but some previously had tried it too. I remember a letter to and from Jagmohan who was then minister in the correspondence file.but nothing happened . and we all went bck to our work.
for those who are interested this temple is a few km from a very famous temple called malayanur( I think?) on a road branching out from senji, those who have a thirupukal book please read this fanstastic verses.
We did speak at length about preserving our Temples, but we are yet to reach an point of action and we are already losing track of this thread. Since Chandra/Madan have already been involved with Temple cleaners and with inputs from Sriraman, GSK, Jaybee Sir along with everyone from Varalaaru.com and PSVP and everyone interested, can we come up with a list of temples that have a crying need for attention.
I am volunteering to maintain the list and for collection of data. We should know our agenda and keep to a plan of action.