UNESCO’s fact-finding team has informed the Madras High Court that the temple conservation work undertaken by the state government in Tamil Nadu is badly affecting the historic temples.
The UNESCO’s team conducted a study on temples of Tamilnadu in May and June of this year. They reviewed the nature and quality of physical interventions recently made to 10 out of 37 historic temples under litigation in Tamil Nadu following the Madras high court order.
The team cited the Madurai Meenakshi Temple, that the restoration work that is being undertaken by the state government is against the Agama Shastra’s and it has also clearly recommended that old stone material needs to be used and reused until it has lived its life. It is also against the principles of Silpashastras. The study also mentioned that no drawings were approved by Muthiah Sthapathy, the chief Sthapathy of the Hindu Religious and Charitable & Endorsement and that the work being carried out was is also in contradiction with his report of 2006.
The study was conducted in temples like Meenakshi Amma Temple in Madurai, Nellaiyappar temple and Vanamamalai Perumal temple in Tirunelveli, Marudhakali Amman temple in Namakkal, Nageswara Swamy temple in Kumbakonam, Naganadha Swamy temple in Manambadi, Aadhi Narayana Perumal temple in Pazhaverkadu near Chennai, Arunachaleswarar temple in Tiruvannamalai, Ranganathaswami temple in Srirangam, Trichy and Kamakshi temple in Kancheepuram.
Last year, the Madras High Court had asked UNESCO to be part of restoration projects of Tamil Nadu temples. The court has asked the state government to include UNESCO and requested their presence in the court by August 23. The High Court had also clarified that the government should slow down works on the monuments and it should carry out work only if they thought that the delay will lead to its collapse. The UNESSCO report has also stated that the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department (HR & CE) does not have capacity nor quality experts to carry out work on these monuments. Moreover, no proper system is being followed for documenting, assessing, reporting and tendering of heritage works, the report said. The UNESCO Report suggested that the restoration works be taken up in phased manner as it will give the time for reviewing and documentation.
The Report also cited the example of 1000- year Naganathaswamy temple, Kumbakonam, which has almost disappeared due to the lack of conservation mechanism. This Chola era temple has been pulled down in the name of renovation, claim heritage activists who say the lack of “conservation manual” added to the problems. The stone temple built around 1016 CE, is one of the 88 protected monuments in the state under the control of the state department of archaeology. A sculpture in Naganathaswamy temple, where the Chola king along with his family is seen worshipping Lord Nataraja, signifies the consecration of the temple during his period.
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