The
Great Living Chola Temples are three temples in Tamil Nadu built during the 11th
and 12th century, when the
Chola dynasty ruled south India, that are now recognised as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site under this name. Here is
a photo of Thanjai Periya Kovil ~ the Brihadeeswarar Temple.
In
fact, every King worth his name was keen on building big and dedicated Temple
for Lord Shiva or Lord Sriman Narayana .. .. .. what
ails Tamil Nadu now ? ~ there are huge crowds – baktha offer crores for the Temple which
are administered by the Govt and the donations given by devout for the Temple
goes to Govt to be used for every other use; at many places Temples are administered
by non-believers; mismanagement ensures that from vast acres of land, no or very little revenue gets generated ~ and
, and … ‘Temple idols’ are stolen (or
they are moved to chests and other temples for protection !) – and a higher Police official of the Idol wing himself is implicated in the idol theft; sordid affairs !!
Palavakkam
on the outskirts of the city was once the central theme of comedy drama ‘Crazy
thieves in Palavakkam’. Perungudi and DB
Jain college a few decades were considered out of bounds and away from the city
… not any longer, it is almost the entry point of the IT Corridor ever busy OMR
[Old Mahabalipuram Road] ~ and in this busy area, Six panchaloha idols have
been stolen from the Srinivasa Perumal temple in Perungudi. The theft occured
on Friday and a priest noticed the missing idol when he came to offer prayers
on Saturday morning, reports ToI.
The temple's
trustee then reportedly instructed the priest to lodge a complaint with the
Thoraipakkam police station. A case has been registered and police are trying
to use CCTV footage and fingerprints found at the site to identify the
culprits. The temple had no security guard and the thieves had broke opened the
lock to make away with the valuables. According to reports, idols stolen
include those of Anjaneyar, the main deity Srinivasa Perumal, Narasimhar and
Padmavathi Thayar.
At the beginning of
this month, police had arrested three persons in Thanjavur district, when they
attempted to steal a two-foot Amman idol, from a Mariamman temple. A
four-member gang had planned to steal what they presumed was a panchaloha idol,
but their plan was foiled as the villagers caught hold of one of the culprits
when they tried to escape. Over the last year alone, multiple cases of theft in
connection to these idols have emerged in Tamil Nadu. In the past idols have
been smuggled to dealers in Mumbai and New Delhi before being shipped off to
art galleries abroad.
It is
reported that a business stand-off between a buyer who offered Rs 1.5 crore and
smugglers who wanted Rs 2.35 crore for the idol, seems to have led to the leak
of information to the idol wing cops, who carried out the midnight operation !
Sundaramurthi
Nayanar, also known affectionately as
Tampiran Tōḻan
(Comrade of the Master, meaning Shiva) lived in 8th century or so
and was a poet who sung on Lord Siva. He was a contemporary of Cheraman Perumal
and Kotpuli Nayanar who also figure in the 63 Nayanmars. The songs of praise
are called Thiruthondathogai and is the original nucleus around which the
Periyapuranam is based. The hymns of
seventh volume of the Tirumurai, the twelve-volume compendium of the poetry of
Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta, were composed by him. Naturally he is hailed and
worshipped in Saivaite temples.
Sleuths of the
state idol wing CID on Tuesday night arrested four people, including an
engineer employed at a thermal power plant, for stealing a 600-year old
panchaloha idol from a temple at Uthiramerur near Kancheepuram. The suspects
planned to sell the idol to an agent in Malaysia, police said. Police, who
believe the idol of Sundaramurthy Nayanar is worth around `2.35 crore in the
international market, added that Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials
had, after verification, confirmed that it dated to around 1,400AD.
During
inquiries, Mahendran, 41, of Mangal village in Tiruvannamalai, Sekar, 28, of
Uthiramerur, and Dakshinamurthy , 29, and Karthik, 25, both residents of
Olukarai village, admitted that they had stolen the idol from a dilapidated
temple near Uthira merur, around 30km from Kancheepuram town, said an idol wing
CID official. Strangely, none of the po lice stations in and around Uthiramerur
had registered any case of an antique idol stolen from any of the ancient
temples in the area, he added. The arrested men were on Wednesday produced
before the Additional Principal Sessions Court in Kumbakonam, designated to try
idol theft cases among others, and were later lodged in the Central Prison at Trichy
.
It was based on
specific information provided from Malaysia that a team of the idol wing CID
zeroed in on the four men at a hideout near Balu Chetty Chathiram in
Kancheepuram district. The informer in Malaysia had told police that four men
were trying to strike a business transaction with an agent in the Southeast
Asian country . The special team led by inspector general of police A G Pon
Manickavel and deputy superintendents of police Ramesh, Raghupathi and
Shivasankar seized a Maruthi van from the four men. Deputy inspector general
Thenmozhi and superintendent of police Santhosh Haidmeni were also involved in
the operation.
Of the four men, a
police officer said, Dakshinamurthy was an engineer who worked on a temporary
basis at a thermal power plant in Ennore, while Karthik, a diploma holder, was
employed as a sales manager in a private company. Deputy superintendent of
police, idol wing CID, Shivasankar, was later tasked with following the case to
its logical end.
But the
idol is yet to be linked to any Temple ~ perhaps the Temple from where it was
stolen is yet to realize the missing idol !! ~ what an administration ? – then there
is the Police story … that of a DSP involved in the theft of idols and arrested
.. !!
It is reported in
the media that suspended deputy superintendent of police (DSP) Kader Batcha,
who was in the custody of idol wing CID police for five days, didn't cooperate
with the investigating officers. The
inspector-general of police of the idol wing CID A G Pon Manickavel told
reporters in the court premises in Kumbakonam after witnessing the court
proceedings that his team of investigation officers grilled Batcha with 62
questions vital to the investigation.
Two additional superintendents of police
Jose Thangaiah and Kumar have been assigned to probe Batcha. As Batcha's
custody ended on Friday, the idol wing CID officials produced him before the
special court to try exclusively the idol wing cases in the state in
Kumbakonam. The judge ordered the police to detain Batcha in judicial custody
until October 6. Police took him to the Trichy central prison and he was
remanded there.
Police personnel
arrested Batcha from a hideout in Kumbakonam and he was later remanded in
judicial custody after being produced before the court on September 13. The
idol theft case took momentum on June 27 after Madras high court judge Justice
Mahadevan came down hard on the idol wing CID officials for not initiating any
action against officials involved in the case. Subsequently, a police team arrested
sub inspector Subburaj, 54, who served in Koyambedu police station and was
serving as police head constable in 2008 when he and Batcha are believed to
have obtained antique idols from ta farmer and later sold them to the idol
smuggler G Deenadayalan, who is currently facing many cases, for Rs 2 crore.
Sordid is the state of affairs ! ~ for many there are
important avocations and bakthas too
remain unconcerned !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
12th Oct
2017.
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