RENOVATION ON ANVIL: A view of the Varadarajaswamy temple in Kancheepuram. File photo
CHENNAI: The State Government has taken up renovation work on 48 ancient and historically important temples at an estimated Rs.9.87 crore.
A few of them are in a dilapidated condition and some have been closed down due to structural infirmities.
"When this issue was brought to the notice of the Chief Minister, he immediately wanted these temples renovated and reopened at an early date. We are working towards that," said K.R.Periyakaruppan, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister.
Among the temples are the 11th century Rajagopalaswamy temple in Palayamkottai where the herbal wall paintings found in the sanctum sanctorum are considered rare; Adikesavaperumal temple, Thiruvattar, one of the 108 important Vaishnavite shrines; 13th century Masilanathar and Varadharajaperumal temple, Tharangampadi, where inscriptions have been found to belong to the period of the Pandiya Kings (due to erosion, most of the temple is submerged in the Bay of Bengal); 1000-year-old Varadarajaswamy temple, Kancheepuram; 200- year-old Kailasanathaswamy temple, Aakkaloor (Thiruvadanai), where the stone ceiling found in the `chitra mandapam' is unique; 1000- year-old Vyakrapureeswarar temple, Thirupulivanam (Uthiramerur), an ancient temple built by Pallava King Nandivarman; Uthiraranganathaswami temple, Pallikonda, where inscriptions reveal that Chola King Vikrama, donated lands to maintain it; Markapandeeswarar temple, Virichipuram (Vellore), glorified in hymns by Thirumoolar, Sundarar and Appar; Jalakandeswarar and Renganathaperumal temple, Vandavasi, and Gnanapureeswarar temple, Thiruvadisulam (Kancheepuram).
Tenders floated
The department has floated tenders in a few of the cases and will take up the remaining soon, officials said.
Mr. Periyakaruppan said though the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam as a party did not subscribe to religious beliefs and worship, it would be in the forefront of preserving cultural and other identities important to people. It was because of this that the department had prepared a detailed plan for the upkeep of the nearly 40,000 temples under its control.
The department has also drawn up a comprehensive plan to ensure that the surroundings of temples are kept clean. It is working with the Tourism Department to generate interest in many of the lesser known but ancient temples.
The department has a few temple `circuits' and is in the process of looking at new locales. Both departments have decided to share the cost of upgrading infrastructure around historically important temples, the Minister said.
Dear Mr. Vijay, I only hope they do not lay modern tiles and polished granite in all these temples in the name of renovating them.I feel the charm of the temples are lost with them.Let us sincerely hope that none of the priceless paintings and inscriptions damaged. with regards, shanthi palaninathan.
In one of our trips, I asked the same question to a distinguished person, who accompanied us, as why they are spoiling the temples with colour paints. Why cant it be a proper restoration of the actuals?
The answer was a one liner - 'paint adikara contractla kasu adikaathan'.
Dear Mr. Venketesh, In my opinion the hard work of the sculptors are lost when they paint and lay the modern tiles .Instead why do not they clean the temples and see to maintaining them throughout. With regards, Shanthi palaninathan.
I feel any renovation must take care of structural stability; the rest - walls, pillars, sculptures - must be left in their natural state; or transparent varnish/silicone coatings may be given to protect them from the ravages of weather. Restoration of paintings will be more difficult; at least copies can be made by talented artistes. In addition, a photographic archive must be created. At least, we now have the tools and technology to do this. Sampath
when a temple is as well maintained structurally as in the case of mylapore or madurai or thiruvanmiyur, i am sure we should maintain them with as little of modern technologies as possible.
for example there is this technoogy called sand blasting. when temple walls and roofs get laden with condensed oil smoke they look dirty. so this sand blasting method was used. its just a stream of high pressure air with sand particles introduced in the air flow. the small sand particles hit the oul and make it drop. the walls are as fresh as new. peple were very happy till it rained... all the mortar they had used to seal gaps between the granite slabs had fallen off as well with the oil. kapali temple was leaking in a hundred places.
what i am talking about is the hundreds of temples- all structurally damaged and on the verge of falling like this temple in uthiramerur i spoke about. lets remember the primary motive of building a temple was a s aprayer place. we need to maintain the structure so that it is serves that purpose. whatever technologies they use to make it stand erect is welcome. venketesh
One more thing about temples and ancient preservations:
I believe the lighting of camphor (as regulated substance - instead of lighting it by any one every where) must be allowed to be shows on deepa aaradhana by priests and regular preservation done to restore the side effects of camphor burnings.
Camphor is a medium of energy transfer unlike the ghee deepam, the deepam by itself is just light, but camphor melts in air when heated and is believed to transfer the energy from the temples into humans.
Preserving temples of main entities is key , there is more to God than just in temples, however for the common man... it is a great place to start. Preserve it for future generations to know what temples are and what treasure they have.
There are herbal paints which have a life expectency of atleast 2000 years and preserve the sculptor / art of the temple, it is hell lot expensive...but worth it.