A temple regains its glory

The consecration of the Srivilliputtur temple tower is to be held on February 10. This has become possible after battling with official apathy for years. A report by T.A.SRINIVASAN.

THE 196 foot tall tower of the Andal - Rangamannar - Vatapatrasayee temple at Srivilliputtur, which the Tamil Nadu Government has adopted as its emblem and the twin temple complex have at last been renovated at last at a cost of Rs. 2.50 crores. They are to be consecrated on February 10.

In the Tamil month of Margazhi, Andal's Tiruppavai echoed in the morning hours. It was at Srivilliputtur that Andal was found as a five-year-old child in the Tulsi garden by the Vaishnavite saint, Vishnuchittar, who earned the title of Periyazhwar. Andal, from her childhood, longed to marry the Lord. The Thiruppavai hymns essentially deal with her spiritual exercise and mystic excursions. They are unusual in that they reflect the thoughts reaching beyond the customary bounds of a person in her teens - Andal lived in this world only for 15 years, according to the scriptures of the temple.

The house where Periyazhwar and Andal lived became the nucleus for the new temple constructed over 600 years ago while the Vatapatrasayee temple, was built over 1,200 years ago. An inscription in the temple, dating back to 973 A.D. describes the arrangements made for the morning worship there.

The temple's tower, with such a hoary past, developed cracks over 35 years ago and its renovation began on June 5, 1970. The scriptures stipulate that temples should be consecrated every 12 years and the earlier purification ceremony took place in the Forties. After 1970, it was decided to strengthen the tower at a cost of Rs. 3.29 lakhs. Meanwhile, the huge wooden pillars, put up at each of the 11 tiers, began to give way and the cracks widen. The public raised a hue and cry.

But the lethargic government machinery took another decade to wake up to the issue and the renovation work was "reinaugurated" by Mr. R. M. Veerappan, who was the Religious and Charitable Endowments Minister, on November 10, 1981, according to a plaque found on the western side of the tower. Nothing was done after that. After another five years, a third inauguration took place on January 25, 1986, in the presence of the then Industries Minister, Mr. K. Rajaram. It was announced that Sri Varadaraja Ethiraja Jeeyar of Sriperumbudur would bear the cost of the renovation work. But he fell out of favour with the Government and his plans did not fructify.

The renovation work became a reality only in 1990 when it was entrusted to the Tamil Nadu State Construction Corporation (TNSCC). The tower is a hollow structure with a granite wall up to a height of 32 ft and above it there is a 164-foot brick and lime mortar structure. Wooden planks were used to provide the flooring at each tier. The planks were supported by huge teak pillars, all easily obtained from the forest lands owned by the temple at "Shenbaga Thoppu" in the Western Ghats.

The TNSCC engineers laid a pile foundation. The piles were put up to strengthen the old basement.

The wooden pillars have been replaced with RCC beams and slabs. About 125 tonnes of cement was used to close the holes and cracks on the inner and outer walls of the tower's basement known as kalkaaram. The side walls have been plastered by an improved method, known as "gunitting" or plastering by using weld mesh and chips. The Mugasalai, or the entrance portion of each of the 11 tiers, which were damaged, have been rebuilt. Gunitting the pandial or the top-most portion of the tower was completed during the first phase of the work in 1991 at a cost of Rs. 60 lakhs.

After a lull of four years, the second phase of the work- plastering of the outer walls of the tower and relaying of the Sudhai images - was taken up at a cost of Rs. 30 lakhs in 1995. Scaffoldings were raised and the tower was covered on all sides with thatches but they collapsed during heavy rains two years ago before the painting of the images could be taken up. Only after a new renovation committee under the presidentship of industrialist P. R. Ramasubrahmaneya Rajha was constituted in September 1997, did the work started looking up. New scaffoldings were put up and the painting work has almost been completed now.

The renovation of the vimanams over the shrines of Vatapatrasayee, Periazhwar, Narasimhar, Ramanuja and Nammazhwar, the Thiruppavai Vimanam in the Andal temple, laying of tiles on the ceilings of both temples, repairing of Dwajasthambams and Palipeetams and other works were also taken up. All these have been done with donations.

The temple had no income of its own though it owned over 1,000 acres of fertile lands, groves and forest lands. Even if one bag of paddy is got from each acre of its lands, the temple will be richer by 1,000 bags every year and this will be enough to meet the daily pooja expenses. But that was not to be, thanks to the strange tenancy laws so poojas are being conducted now only with public donations.

Andal had a special longing for the Lords of Tirumala (Tirupati) and Alagarkoil near Madurai, as expressed in her poems and both the Lords wear the garlands used by Andal, on particular days - the former on the Garudotsavam day in the month of Purattasi and the latter on the Chithra Pournami day, at Madurai. The Tirupati- Tirumala Devasthanam has sanctioned Rs. 25 lakhs for the renovation of the Andal temple but it is awaiting the clearance of the Andhra Pradesh Government.

The two temples have been sanctified by the visit of preceptors like Ramanuja, Anandazhwan, Vedanta Desika and Manavala Mamunigal and numerous are the episodes connected with them and the temple. Krishnadevaraya, ruler of Vijayanagar, composed "Amukta Malyata" in Telugu in praise of Andal. The great Tamil poet, Kamban has compared the Andal temple tower to legendary Mount Meru in one of his poems. There are many wooden carvings in both temples and the Gopalavilasam hall in the Vatapatrasayee temple is excellent in its conception and these as well as the frescoes on the ceiling at the entrance of the Andal temple, and huge granite sculptures in its pillars, numbering over a dozen, remain as permanent evidences to our rich cultural heritage.

Everyone visiting the town will be awestruck by the tall tower, the huge car and the spacious tank. No other place is as holy as Srivilliputtur as it is the birth place of two great saints - Periyazhwar and Andal.

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