Temple Development Works - TDW

900-year-old temple to get new lease of life

Kamakshi Samedha Ekambareswar Temple in the foothills

Chief Minister announces in the Assembly Rs. 1 crore for restoration of the temple situated atop hill near Tindivanam.

Neglected over the years, a 900-year-old temple in Villupuram district is set to get a new lease of life with Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Friday announcing Rs. 1 crore for its restoration.

The derelict Mukyachaleeswarar temple is situated atop a hill at Perumukkal village near Tindivanam, while Kamatchi Samedha Ekambareswarar temple is in the foothills.

The temple atop the hill is under the control of the State Archaeology Department and the other one is maintained by the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department.

In a suo motu statement in the Assembly, Ms. Jayalalithaa said the temple was originally built in brick and renovated as a granite structure during the reign of Vikrama Chola (1118-35 Christian era). The deity’s Tamil name is Thiruvanmigai Iswaramudayar or Perumukkal Udayar.

S. Vasanthi, Commissioner of the Archaeology Department, said the original brick structure bore testimony to the fact that the Mukyachaleeswarar Temple was existed from ancient times. But the lower temple belonged to a later period and was constructed by Vijayanagar kings around the 15th century. The restoration plan would cover both the temples.

Mukyachaleeswarar temple atop a hill at Perumukkal village near Tindivanam.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), on a request from the HR&CE Department, inspected the temples on May 6 and is preparing a detailed report on restoration and the cost.

“Though it is in extremely bad shape, you cannot call it a non-living temple as a priest regularly visits to perform pooja. The compound wall is 90 per cent destroyed,” said an ASI official, who was on the ASI team that visited the temple. A minute study of the structure had to be done before suggesting restoration.

“We have to take into consideration the original structure and interventions made by subsequent rulers. Different types of lime-mortar paste were used in the past. One type for plastering, one for concrete, one for pasting and one for the weather course,” said ASI officials.

The temple tower and vimana on the top of the sanctum sanctorum are made of brick. There are 60 inscriptions that talk about donations made by Chola, Pandya, Sambuvaraya and Vijayanagar kings.

Officials also felt that Rs. 1 crore was not adequate to carry out the restoration work as the entire temple complex was in a really pathetic condition.

Ms. Jayalalithaa said Tamil Nadu had the largest number of temples as well as epigraphs.

So far, 24,060 epigraphs had been copied. These epigraphs are in Tamil, Brahmi, Vattezhuthu (ancient rounded Tamil script), Grantha, Telugu, Kannada and Nagari scripts.

She said estampages made in 1967 by the Archaeology department were in tatters and on the verge of destruction. The government had decided to salvage them by digitisation. A total of Rs. 50 lakh would be spent on this work, which will take three years to complete.

TDW requests the readers to help for this temple development work in Tindivanam.