The details on what happened in Srirangam

[Guest guest]

>From our old friend Sri T.A. Varadhan, now resident

in Chennai.

>

> the whole controversy started when the sthapathi,

> stated that he wanted to make a triangular shaped

> symbol on perumAL's thirumARbu -

>

> all the stahalththArs objected to this - stating

> that there was nothing of that sort on periya

> perumAL's thirumEni before. gaNapathi sthapathi

> apparently quoted from some scriptures/AgamAs

> re: the presence of the triangular shaped symbol

> on perumAL's thirumArbu.

>

> [some people say that the real intentions of the

> sthapathi was to inscribe the thiru maRu (srIvatsa)

> on perumAL's chest - this maRu is a standard feature

> of many perumALs {thillai gOvindarAjan,thirukkOshtiyUr

> etc..}. maRu is the mark on perumAL's chest that was

> created because of brughu maharishi kicking him

> - since perumAL is soulabhyam/kAruNyam/dOsha bOghyan

> personified, the maRu has becaome an adornment to

> Him} - However the way it was put by the sthapathi

> resulted in sthalaththArs understanding the intentions

> differently {i.e. tantric symbol etc..}]

>

> At this time, the sthalaththArs, {srIranga nAraNa

> jIyar, parAsara bhattar svAmi, uttama nambi svAmi,

> among others} and the local srIvaishNavA leaders

> {srIvaishNava srI KrishnamAchAri svAmi, tirumanjanam

> sundararAjan svAmi, thirukkOshtiyUr mAdhavan

> svAmi among others} objected to the triangular mark

> & suggested that the image of mahAlakshmi be restored

> on perumAL's thirumArbu.

>

> At this juncture, there were objections from

> many quarters about restoring pirAtti's image. The

> issue went up to the commissioner of HR&CE to

> decide & multiple petitions were sent across to the

> CM, to the HR&CE department & to the press.

>

> The commissioner of HR&Ce, srI. sAvarkAr had not made

> any decisions yet, as the caretaker of all temples in

> tamizhnAdu. Meetings were set up for all parties to

> present their case.

>

> Prior to this, the HR&CE folks made some inquiries

> aout

> the presence of mahAlakshmi on perumAL. some archakAs

> of the temple denied any such existense and were

> of the opinion that since no mahAlakshmi existed on

> perumAL's chest, no new image be created of Her on

> perumAL's chest.

>

> The sthalattArs and srIvaishNavAs gathered evidence

> for the presence of mahAlakshmi on perumAL's chest -

>

> 1. during the fire accident of 1959, it is entirely

> possible that the image of mahAlakshmi also damaged

> and when the subsequent cleaning of perumAL's image

> was done, the mahAlakshmi image could have completely

> disappeared.

>

> 2. perumAL is suthai thirumEni {suNNAmbu kalavai

> etc..} - thailak kAppu is done every friday to

> perumAL - over a period of time, the thailak kAppu

> makes the features indistinguishable - in fact, the

> fire accident happened because the thailak kAppu was

> inches thick & since it is oil, at some local pocket,

> the thailak kAppu exploded and the fire spread.

>

> 3. The current archakAs had not performed kainkaryam

> to perumAL before the fire accident in 1959.

>

> 4. The sthalaththArs obtained statements from

> (a) archakAs who have performed kainkaryam before 1959

> (b) archakas from other temples that helped in

> restoring periya perumAL in 1959

>

> 5. An old photo of the mUlavar was also

> produced - the image of mahAlakshmi is faintly visible

> on this photo.

>

> 6. quotes from the divyaprabhandham was taken &

> AchAryAs' vyAkhyAnams were used to prove the presence

> of mahAlakshmi on perumAL's chest. The key quotes

> were "agalakillEn" from thiru vAymozhi and "thiru Ara

> mArbu adhu aNrO" fromn amalanAdhi pirAn. The

> commentary of svAmi periya vAccAn piLLai was used to

> illustrate the meaning of thiru Ara mArbu adhuanrO -

> thiruvukku aaram pOlE irukkum...

>

> 7. srIranga nAraNa jIyar played a very important role

> in making everyone come together and get the

> discussions going. The final decision was made in a

> meeting at His maTam.

>

> 8. once the facts were presented, the commmissioner

> made the only decision that is right - i.e. the image

> of mahAlakshmi should be restored.

>

> I would be remiss if I did not mention about srI.

> sAvarkAr and his excellent service as the HR&CE

> commissioner. He took it upon himself to be in

> srIrangam for 10 days till the samprOkahaNam to

> ensure proper supervision. He arranged a seminar on

> "AzvArgaL kaNda perumAL" today (saturday)

> and he himself spoke on "ANdAL kaNda perumAL" -

> He is a really efficient commissioner that tries

> to understand the tradition of the temple concerned,

> and respects the opinion of elders. He makes his

> decisions with utmost sincerity, giving equal hearing

> to all parties concerned and finally making the

> decision that is in accordance with the scriptures

> and tradition.

>

> The wonderful cooperation between the local

> administration of srIrangam (collector office,

> municipality), the temple administration and the

> local srIVaishNava community led by the jIyar

> and sthalattArs is something that needs to be

> duplicated in every temple town.

>

> adiyEn madhurakavi dAsan,

> Varadhan

>

>

>

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[Guest guest]

Assuming the details are correct,

 

What would they do to the archakas who wrongheadedly denied the

existence of mahAlakshmi on perumAL's thirumArbu?

 

Even if they had not performed kainkaryam to perumAL before the fire

accident in 1959, is it not their DUTY to know their own LORD better?

 

If archakas are so negligent what is the point in blaming the

bureaucracy ?

 

adiyEn

Rajagopalan Srinivasan

[Guest guest]

The effort of all the devotees who tried to restore the image of Sri on

perumal's tirumeni is laudable. But why nobody tried to do it for 4 decades

after the fire accident ?

 

Rajaram