A HUGE 1,000-YEAR SHIVA TEMPLE SURFACES IN SOUTHERN TAMILNDU COAST

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A HUGE 1,000-YEAR SHIVA TEMPLE SURFACES IN SOUTHERN TAMILNDU COAST

 

THUTHUKUDI, October 19:

 

http://www.rss.org/New_RSS/News/NewsDetail.jsp

 

It was an excavation that revealed an ancient Hindu temple. But,

oddly, the excavation was not intended to be one.

 

 

 

Village Kottamadaikadu in Kayalpattinam block of Thuthukkudi district

in Tamilnadu is situated on the sea shore of Bay of Bengal. A major

industrial unit, M/s Dharangadhara Chemical Works (DCW) manufacturing

Caustic Soda, was the pride of the village, providing job

opportunities to locals. But it rendered itself an eyesore to the

people when it

 

sought to dump its acid slurry on a 5 acre plot on the beach, which

is bound to end up as a threat to the eco system, especially the sub

soil water table feeding a population of one lakh in the surrounding

 

villages.

 

 

 

When DCW men dug up a one square kilometre trench to dump the slurry,

idols of deities and remains of 1,000-year temple belonging to the

early Chola period surfaced, reported KADHIRAVAN, a Tamil daily

published from

 

Tirunelveli on May 3, 2003.

 

 

 

The idols included that of Lord Nataraja, Uma and Durga. They were

made of Panchaloha. That is, their value in the antique market would

be more

 

than Rs. 10 lakhs as per the estimate of a schoolmaster of the

village who has studied archaology.

 

 

 

These idols as well as a few pooja utensils, found during the second

round of digging in June were reportedly handed over to the Tehsildar

at

 

Tiruchendur by the Company officials. But the villagers, some of whom

are eyewitnesses to the presence of a six-foot stone idol of kali at

the

 

dug up site, questeioned the mysterious disappearance of the same.

Later it was found lying in a lake inside a forest nearby. The

tehsildar

 

retrieved it and kept it under his custody.

 

 

 

But these questions remain:

 

 

 

¡¤ Why the digging was suspended for 45 days after May 3?

 

 

 

¡¤ Were there far more costly things, say, a treasure of gold and

diamond worth crores, found at the site and not handed over to the

 

authorities?

 

 

 

¡¤ Was there an attempt to smuggle valuables excavated to foreign

countries via Coimbatore?

 

 

 

¡¤ Will the district authirities order forthwith stoppage of further

digging by the Company at the site?

 

 

 

¡¤ Will the archaeology department step in to conduct a scientific

excavation at the site so that an ancient port city (as per

archaeology

 

department sources) around the huge temple swallowed by sea millenia

ago could see the light of the day?

 

 

 

¡¤ Will the demand by Hindu devotees that the temple be recreated on

the spot be heeded before the relics are removed by the massive

earthmovers of the Company?

 

 

 

¡¤ Last, but not least: will the fears of the local population about

the safety of subsoil water being endangered by acid slurry dumping

by the Company be allayed by pollution control board's stern measures?

 

 

 

The demography of the locality also is a moot factor in this episode.

Kayalpattinam is a Muslim-dominated town. The district itself is a

hotbed of Christian conversion. Hence, the distraught Hindus are

justifiably eager to establish the glorious Hindu past of the place,

a morale booster for sure.

 

Media Centre, Chennai