Of Secular Carvings, Sacred Spaces and Agama Violations

1 JUNE 2012 700 VIEWS 13 COMMENTS

Dear friends, I am not sure how many of you will be shocked and outraged by what I am about to sharewith all of you. I was more than shocked and outraged, I was aghast and furious; and determined to do something about this. But first, a sad story of government invasion of sacred spaces (aka management of temples by government controlled Trusts), secular carvings, Agama violations and outrageous renovations. As some of you may know, I am very timeconstrained at present so this post is more in the nature of rough note based on a few bullet points. It does manage to convey all the relevant points though. Read on: The Kalamangalam temples in Erode Taluk Kalamangalam is located in Southern bank of Cauvery river 15 km from Erode to Karur road. It is one of the traditional Kaani Village in Poondurai country out of it 32 Kaanis, since Chera Maharaja times. It comprises 18 villages Kulavilakkamman temple (form of Badrakaliamman) is a Kaani temple for 18 villages. The village also contains Bhuloganayaki Sametha Mathyapureeswarar temple and Bhudevi Neeladevi Sametha KalyanaVaradharajar temple. These temples are managed traditionally by Kanna Gothra Konga Vellalar community (see additional information on the Kongu Vellalar community here; also here) The Kulavilakkamman temple is now under the management of HR&CE appointed trustees from Konga Vellalar community, since 1960s. Apparently, the commercialization of the temple and the entry of politics into this sacred space started in 2007 when a massive fund-raising drive was launched (with publicity) for the purpose of renovation and consecration of the temple. I do not know exactly how much money was collected but it was enough to do a number of things in the name of temple renovation. These included: Removal of statues of horses, cows and elephants on the ground that they were not in good condition (but photographs suggest otherwise) Removal of the Nagar statues in the north west corner Steel roofs around the temple premises that hid the view of the Gopura Kalasam (a major violation of the Agama Shastra; see this and this; also this for more on Agama Shastra) Marble flooring that was slippery and another Agama violation

Around the same time apparently, a proposal was mooted to rent out the temple for marriage purposes and charge money for it. You can see some photos of the work here. But worse was to come

Sometime during the last few years, the eastern doors of the temple were replaced(?) with ones that had carved faces of among others EVR (who apparently once garlanded SriRam with a garland of shoes), Mother Teresa, Annadurai and Abdul Kalam (see here). The walls were further defaced by engraving the names of trustees on them.

Worse, the roof angles made for the godown-like structures initially carried the DMK symbol, Rising Sun which were eventually removed after opposition from the devotees (pl see pics at the link above & if you wish to see more, pl leave a comment below). The final aggravating act for the devotees of the Kulavilakkamman temple was the consecration of the temple in February 2011 in violation of the established rituals and Shastras. Apparently, this was done in spite of the entreaties of the traditional Sivacharya. The temple is a living example of Chola architecture and the Vijayanagara style besides being a few centuries old and on the basis of being a protected monument, it should not have been violated in this manner. Sadly, people who protested have apparently been threatened with false cases; unsurprisingly, no one is prepared to come out publicly on this. The story would have remain buried among the locals were it not for the effort of some keen Bhaktas who were aghast with these developments and decided to share it with the wider world. Please share this tale of egregious and outrageous behaviour among your friends and family especially those from Tamil Nadu. Needless to add, please keep an eye out for any such work or activities in any sacred places you visit. If you spot something like this, pl send me details and I will be happy to share it on the blog. As for this particular matter, a legal case is now being prepared, complaints have been filed and hopefully we will see a resolution in due course. Thanks to Radha-ji for alerting us to this and sharing with the wider community. I have additional photographs and links to some videos of these violations in case anyone is interested. Related Post: On Ancient Temple, Mosques, Highways and Airports Also read: Of Hindu Temples, Forms of Gods and Mother Teresa

P.S. Poet Kalamegham of 14th century (who sung like dark clouds lashing rains) lived in this Eswar temple and hence the town was renamed after him as Kalamangalam from Mathyapuri. This village is in centre (madhya) of the river Cauverys length & breadth, hence the earlier name.
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13 Comments

1. Nandita said:
Dear Sir, this is terrible. I will be quoting your blog entry in other fora for people to be aware of this desecration of Hindu temples by TN govt. Regards.
1 June 2012

2. `Secularisation` of ancient temple by TN govt said:

[...] Teresa, Annadurai and Abdul Kalam [take a look at the accompanying photographs in the blog]. Of Secular Carvings, Sacred Spaces and Agama Violations Dear friends, I am not sure how many of you will be shocked and outraged by what I am about [...]
1 June 2012

3. Shrivathsa said:
thanks for the info. i will try to give this as much publicity as possible. I condemn the violations in the strongest possible terms.
1 June 2012

4. mgd said:
I think one of the local devotees can file a police/magistrate complaint against the officials responsible for this desecration on the grounds that it hurts religious sentiments. HK readers including myself can contribute small amounts to render financial assistance to the complainant.
2 June 2012

5. Soumya P R said:

This is ridiculous.India is famous for its art architecture and specially temples.People from different parts of the world visit them.I think POLITICIANS think as if they are renovating their bedrooms by paying lacs to some interior decorator.No wonder in few days they will come and renovate our houses too.This had to be stopped or else one day we will see India losing its identity.
3 June 2012

6. Sanjeev Sabhlok said:

Shantanu This is beyond deplorable. Your observation about this being related to a government controlled trust should be examined further. I firmly believe that there is no role for the government in such managing temples or any other religious place. These should be entirely privatised ie returned to the people. All kinds of busybodies with zero sense of history, culture, or religion are empowered through such government control to dabble with, and to ultimately destroy, the heritage of India. Religions are NOT an equal opportunity place. s
3 June 2012

7. KSV SUBRAMANIAN said:

Hindu temples forcibly nationalised by the so called SECULAR GOVERNMENTS for the purpose of appointing their cronies in lucrative posts the way they post their cronies in Government Corporations. In turn these cronies undertake all such anti-social or anti-temple and anti-hindu activities to fill the coffers of their masters. They are not managing the temples but their intention is to loot the offerings of the devotees. But this is the height of secularisation (or is vandalising) of Hindu temples. I am shocked to learn the facts stated above viz. engravings of persons who have nothing to do with Hindu religion or rather some of them are quite anti-hindu. This is just insulting the hindus as a community by the so called SECULAR TERRORISTS. Yes, they are terrorising the hindu community by their actions like this.
3 June 2012

8. Amit said:
All Hindus should unite and take control of temples , how the hell in Secularism Govt can takeover Temples, do France , US takeover churches / nope , and these Mindless Judges of Supreme court and High court everytime give a go ahead to Govt for such takeover , it is all because of SOB Nehru , who inserted article 30 B in constitution which protects only Minority institutions from takeover , Atleast BJP could do something to change this scenario when they were in power , but Alas they dont have either intellect or will to understand and change these Sickular designs of Congress
3 June 2012

9. Amit said:

We have lost , the Shaiva math of Kaarnataka are inviting the Anti Hindu , Designer of Communal violence bill , Sonia Gandhi to there 100 year celebration , it is all because of leaders like Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramkrishna , who have made Hindus too much passive by teaching this Sarva Dharma Sambhava , Vivekananda or Ramkrishna might have not wanted to make Hindus weak , but practically they r doing same thing today , and when that is combined with fraudulent Sickular politics of Nehru Company and leftist the result can only be like this , and look at the irony while teaching for 100 years that Ramkrishna is an Avatara of Ram, Krishna , and having 99% Hindu followers Ramkrishna mission went to SC to get Minority status , to prevent takeover from Bengal Govt, if there had been any sense of responsibility towards society in these Modern Monks they should have fought tooth and Nail the Partial Constitution which permits takeover of only Hindu institutions .
3 June 2012

10. Amit said:

One more thing , the very idea of carving of other Religions in a temple is developed in Ramkrishna Mission , it was Ramkrishna Mission Nagpur that made a Grand Temple in 2004 with carvings of symbols of All religion , after that every big temple made by this Mission has such carvings , but who visits them ? obviously only Hindus , Muslims and Christians r not going to bow to SriRamkrsihna ,no matter how much u r ready to sacrifice ,
3 June 2012

11. CC said:
Hey Bhagwan. Im so horrified and aghast. This has got to be the most criminal act against docile and meek Hindus who take every insult thrown at them. I feel so powerless as a human being.
5 June 2012

12. CC said:
Where is heck is that thug Pramod Muthalik? What is his Sri ram sene doing? He seems so concerned about young girls drinking at pubs but this atrocity doesnt bother him? Wheres ABVP hiding now?
5 June 2012

13. kaushal said:

@CC Where is heck is that thug Pramod Muthalik? What is his Sri ram sene doing? He seems so concerned about young girls drinking at pubs but this atrocity doesnt bother him? Wheres ABVP hiding now? Why dont you publish your named and your real identity? I Why dont you would go and protest, like if you so to horrified and ask: aghast.

being a Hindu, you too have some duty towards your religion.

Ram Sene or ABVP have not taken contract for the whole Hindu society to fight at all the fronts while people like you sit comfortably and just type. First of all, your facts regarding Ram Sene itself is wrong. Visit some blogs beyond NDTV or CNNIBN and try to get your facts right. To the very least, visit Manglore and ask the girls there what they think about Ram Sene and what happened on that day? BTW, if you have not heard the term Love Jihad, no point reading beyond this. Ram Sene has been working at the ground level to prevent Hindu girls falling prey to Muslims traps. Which the people like you in cities would support as freedom just because Amir and Shahrukh have married Hindu girls. The organization who is working for the society, at least expects that urban educated middle class Hindus to be aware of the truth. -Kaushal
8 June 2012

http://satyamevajayate.org/2012/06/01/secularcarvingsagamaviolations/