Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Gangai Kondan Mandap, Kanchipuram
The GK Mandap as we call, or the Gangai Kondan Mandap in Kanchipuram, just opposite Sankara Mutt, where a big Hanuman is worshiped and where the annual utsavam happens and the traditional Umbrella Makers for the Varadaraja make them for ages, was in danger. We saw the lintel above the entrance hanging almost, wanting to fall off any moment. We immediately supported it with two poles and sought help from members and philanthropists. To our rescue the Lord himself sent his devotee, Shri Narayanan, a Power plant industrialist and our patron. He immediately took up the total cost of the project and after some dilly-dallying with the endowment officials, we finally got the approval and the work is on! The roof was over burdened with extra weight from the shops all around, who were dumping all broken walls and tubes, poles etc on the mandap for ages, as well as extra weight due to cement plastering done some years ago by some renovator, had weakened the structures. We have removed all the extra weight and the broken lintel is to be replaced with a 19 feet long single stone bolster, to be cut and shaped to size, sought from a quarry in Bangalore!
See the pictures here.
See the pictures here.
Labels: Gangai Kondan Mandapam, Hanuman Mandapam, heritage temples, Kanchipuram, restoration, Sankara Mutt, Varadaraja Perumal temple, Vijayanagara Mandapam
Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Cheranmahadevi Ramaswamy Temple
When we visited Cheranmahadevi Ramaswamy temple (the locals call it Sermadevi and insist that's the right way to pronounce!) we were not aware that this temple has a 3 tiered Vimana. Having imposing Rama, Sita and Lakshmana, Hanuman sculptures right at the entrance and some interesting sculptures in the motif at the entrance, the temple stands clearly with tell-tale signs of a Vishnu temple, the Moolavar still is...
Later Nayakas had patronized and the Bronzes of Rama, Lakshmana and Sita, Hanuman would have been donated to this temple for Urchava Moorthis' worship, but unless we ask the Bhattar to show us above, allow us to climb up the stairs to have a look at the other two tiers, one can never imagine the Vimana having within itself the layers where Original stucco with their sheen lost and mutilated, lie there as a glaring example of the neglect we have on such rare beauties. Leave along the antiquity, but where are the real Vishnu Bhakthas? While we enter the Cheranmahadevi village, we see a contract of sorts, on the right a Vishnu temple renovated with all the jarring colours and spoils, and far off at the banks of Thamirabarani, on the left the elegant Bhaktavatsala temple renovated and maintained by the A.S.I. Not daring to enter the one in the right, with its gory sight, we visited last time the Bhaktavatsala temple, and this temple too.
When Pradeep Chakravarthy had written about the sad plight of this temple, we were asking ourselves, "Was there a Vimana with three tiers?" Yes, true but sad.
While climbing on the stairs, we saw two parts of Chola inscriptions, and atop, we saw the abandoned Deities all waiting in silence for someone to spruce their looks up! Ironically, this made us learnt a lot on how the stucco using lime mortar, wood as supporting beams and coconut coir as binders were used to construct and make the deities. Faded original paintings were also carrying the sad story within and waiting for some sensible restorer to uplift them.
The roof weather coarse had also eroded, showing signs of leakage. Inside the temple, all stone walls and pillars were white washed, making sure that none of the intricate carvings were made to be seen.
Mr.Ali, a self made archaeologist and heritage lover, who has some large collection of coins and stamps, also an artist drawing sketches from this temple says, " I frequent this temple, whenever I want to energize myself. This is my cradle. I can't bear this agony of seeing it crumble. Will I see the light of the day, the restored temple, before my light goes off?," asks he, tears rolling off his eyes. Dumb struck, we had no answers.
Look at the pictures
We are only heritage lovers as he is, but want to tell the world about this temple and ask all who are concerned, to bring in funds to renovate this magnificent temple. We do not blame the endowments department or the state and central archaeology departments, as they do not have a data base of how many such temples lie across the state nor a foresight of what to do to save a heritage temple. Enough of blame game, we wish only all concerned open their eyes. As a study of contract, we see within Cheranmahadevi (Mr. Ali corrects me again, Sermadevi!) one spoilt renovation, one excellent renovation and one neglected heritage temple! Such is the state of heritage here! Hope the Lord himself shows us the way and answer our queries.
Later Nayakas had patronized and the Bronzes of Rama, Lakshmana and Sita, Hanuman would have been donated to this temple for Urchava Moorthis' worship, but unless we ask the Bhattar to show us above, allow us to climb up the stairs to have a look at the other two tiers, one can never imagine the Vimana having within itself the layers where Original stucco with their sheen lost and mutilated, lie there as a glaring example of the neglect we have on such rare beauties. Leave along the antiquity, but where are the real Vishnu Bhakthas? While we enter the Cheranmahadevi village, we see a contract of sorts, on the right a Vishnu temple renovated with all the jarring colours and spoils, and far off at the banks of Thamirabarani, on the left the elegant Bhaktavatsala temple renovated and maintained by the A.S.I. Not daring to enter the one in the right, with its gory sight, we visited last time the Bhaktavatsala temple, and this temple too.
When Pradeep Chakravarthy had written about the sad plight of this temple, we were asking ourselves, "Was there a Vimana with three tiers?" Yes, true but sad.
While climbing on the stairs, we saw two parts of Chola inscriptions, and atop, we saw the abandoned Deities all waiting in silence for someone to spruce their looks up! Ironically, this made us learnt a lot on how the stucco using lime mortar, wood as supporting beams and coconut coir as binders were used to construct and make the deities. Faded original paintings were also carrying the sad story within and waiting for some sensible restorer to uplift them.
The roof weather coarse had also eroded, showing signs of leakage. Inside the temple, all stone walls and pillars were white washed, making sure that none of the intricate carvings were made to be seen.
Mr.Ali, a self made archaeologist and heritage lover, who has some large collection of coins and stamps, also an artist drawing sketches from this temple says, " I frequent this temple, whenever I want to energize myself. This is my cradle. I can't bear this agony of seeing it crumble. Will I see the light of the day, the restored temple, before my light goes off?," asks he, tears rolling off his eyes. Dumb struck, we had no answers.
Look at the pictures
We are only heritage lovers as he is, but want to tell the world about this temple and ask all who are concerned, to bring in funds to renovate this magnificent temple. We do not blame the endowments department or the state and central archaeology departments, as they do not have a data base of how many such temples lie across the state nor a foresight of what to do to save a heritage temple. Enough of blame game, we wish only all concerned open their eyes. As a study of contract, we see within Cheranmahadevi (Mr. Ali corrects me again, Sermadevi!) one spoilt renovation, one excellent renovation and one neglected heritage temple! Such is the state of heritage here! Hope the Lord himself shows us the way and answer our queries.
Labels: 3 tiered temple, conserveheritage.org, heritage conservation, Pandya Kingdom, Perumal temple renovation, Rama temple, REACH FOUNDATION, Vishnu temple renovation
Friday, November 04, 2011
Pathai and Kalakkad visit
Post-Symposium, we were worried about the poor response from the Tirunelvelians, who pride themselves about their soil. Dr. Thanumurthy living now in Mumbai, hails from a typical hamlet, Pathai, near Sermadevi enroute to Kalakkad, where we have seen the murals before, on the inner walls of each tier of the temple Gopuram.
There is one Kulasekaranathar temple in Tenkasi wherein the walls were sand blasted and member Poornima and her father Mahadevan raised hue and cry to stop that, but they failed stopping the Giovernment machinery - no pun intended, it is the sand blasting machine ;) But they became our active members and inform us about happenings in Tirunelveli district.
Now, when Dr.Thanumurthy called us for inspecting the Kulasekaranathar temple in his village Pathai, the right opportunity came on 14th and 15th of October, 2011, to visit this Kulasekaranathar!
On inspection, we found the weather coarse totally fragmented, stones at corners and walls fallen apart, mostly white washed with lime. The Vimanas were quite good. An estimate has been worked out with help of our friend civil Engineering entrepreneur member Shri. Durai from Thoothukudi and has been sent to Dr. Thanumurthy. The village ponds were dry and villagers claimed that the rains failed them.The day we went, the hamlet kissed the first rush of rain from heaven! Blessed we were and the village, thanks to Kulasekaranathar, as the rains were a good sign for things to come. The local Uzavarappani team had done their best to maintain the temple and they were very helpful in assisting us during the inspection.
From there we tread to Kalakkad, to see the recently finished Gopuram and inspect the murals. The villagers had claimed to maintain the same as they were, and said REACH will be allowed to restore the mural paintings. We have informed them an estimate to restore the paintings. When we visited, we were told that the Sudaii Bommais were falling off from the Gopuram, due to monkeys' menace; the reason was something else. The quality of Sudai bommais were inferior and plaster of paris had been used liberally to finish off (!) the work! Why blame the monkeys, as we had indeed encroachedtheir territory? The Kalakkad Mundandurai Tiger reserve forest is just behind this temple. We were asked by our member SS Mani, to give an estimate to renovate the Murugan Shrine within the temple premises, but there was not much problems, except some polished tiles were laid in front of the shrine. We said the tiles may be removed if possible. Apart from that we observed many inner vimanams and gopurams were plastered with cement and the tell tale signs of overburdened pillars cracking were oblivious signs of fatigue, which needs to be attended too. Sand blasting had cleaned off many intricate carvings of most of the sculptures in the pillars, but the recent renovation committee claimed that sand blasting was done during the earlier Kumbabhishekam!
Worst part, many murals which had bulged and cracked, had been filled with lime mortar by some generous sthapathi! Leave alone this pathetic way of filling the murals, he had also patched the flooring with the paintings in many places along the corridors where the murals were available within the temple Gopuram.
Is it ignorance or negligence? Only the incumbent Lord Sathyavaheeswara knows! We had offered our services for photo documentation and proper restoration to the village temple committee and are awaiting their answers.
The photos here are self explanatory!
The surprise part of this tour came somewhere else, and those spots were Pappankulam and Sermadevi. Let's see in the next blog these surprises!
Worst part, many murals which had bulged and cracked, had been filled with lime mortar by some generous sthapathi! Leave alone this pathetic way of filling the murals, he had also patched the flooring with the paintings in many places along the corridors where the murals were available within the temple Gopuram.
Is it ignorance or negligence? Only the incumbent Lord Sathyavaheeswara knows! We had offered our services for photo documentation and proper restoration to the village temple committee and are awaiting their answers.
The photos here are self explanatory!
The surprise part of this tour came somewhere else, and those spots were Pappankulam and Sermadevi. Let's see in the next blog these surprises!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Latest update of Uttaramerur temple
The construction is almost over, and the compound wall is now raising up.
Stone Vimana temple lying in ruins..
Go on Bangalore Highway, off. Ocheri, some 7 kilometers you will land at Pudhur Village. Interestingly en-route to this breathtaking Vikrama Chola Temple (1118 AD), you come across 2 Shiva Temples and a Vishnu Temple belonging to the Nayaka Period, also lying uncared and in ruins.
Cross Palar river where sand quarrying with Dippers are going on, on the pretext of excavating land for building a bridge...
And you suddenly come across this Beauty lying amidst a Sugar Cane field...
Ramesh Shivan, an ardent shiva devotee, working in T.N. E.B, who mobilizes Uzavarappani groups for cleaning temple in and around Kanchipuram, is keen on seeing this temple back in shape. People please contact reach.foundation.india@gmail.com for donations, to renovate this beautiful temple. 80G IT exemption available for all Indian donors.
Labels: Chola temples, Ocheri, Pudhur, REACH FOUNDATION, temple renovation
Monday, August 15, 2011
Rare Bronzes revealed in Vepenjeri renovation.
Last Saturday we unearthed rare bronzes in Vasthu Deva Pathi Sowmya Narayana Perumal temple, which we are renovating from scratch. The report in TOI and the photo links are here for you to see:
Please click on the following link to read the item:
http://epaper.timesofindia.
Comment: ECR temple Bronze excavation
For AOL users: http://epaper.
And the photos are here taken soon after the excavation
And here is BBC Tamil's interview and photos on this finding.
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Save ancient Early Chola temples - article in Dinamalar
Friday, May 06, 2011
Poigainallur - The first ever stone temple?
We came across last year this temple in Poigainallur, on the Chennai Bangalore Highway, not to be confused with the Korakka Sidar's Poigainallur, which is mentioned as the Paadal Petra sthalam (meaning in Tamil, the place sung by the Saivaite saints). Member Lakshminarayanan, an ardent devotee and temple renovator prefers to call this small temple as the real Paadal petra sthalam, which is closer to Kanchi, the land of temples. The Chandikeswara sculpture here looks too old (at least 1400 years old?) which also drives home the point, that this temple is the few of the first made Katrazhi ( கற்றளி) in the combination style with the middle layer being brick, lime mortar?
Our choice also would be the same, as this temple is exactly on an imaginary line, if drawn from Kanchi to Thiruvalangadu. Imagine the saints walking from Kanchi towards Thiruvalangadu, would have never missed this spot! The flaked stone has slight reminiscences of some inscriptions, and the stones and the construction has clear signs of early period work. Regrouping these stones and raising the foundation would be a week's job, and we're aiming at that! REACH wishes to complete restoring this temple within this May 2011.
Then comes another temple may be some 150 years old, but is also in ruins. This is a private property and we believe the brothers would come to terms, to re-build this temple soon.
The surprise package of the village is this relief panel, in which all devatas come and Epigrapher Shri. S. Ramachandran says that this is a very rare panel and is the earliest forms of worship which proves the antiquity of the village. This panel was kept in obscure place in a Kali temple which also had some sculptures belonging to the Sapthamatrika set, few of them missing.
