The Poovannanathaswamy temple in Tiruppuvanam in Sivaganga district once had couplets from ballads sung by saints like Thirugnana Sambandar and Thirunavukarasu Nainar all over its walls. The inscriptions are still there, but you will not see them due to the thick white coat of paint over them.
Considered as one of the fourteen sacred Pandyan temples, the Poovannanathaswamy temple, built around the late sixth century, shows how maintenance without vision could be detrimental to the existence of an ancient structure. Even though a huge outer wall still protects the structure from further encroachment, the temple is in a state of neglect.
"Encroachment is a big problem. When I was a child, there was not even a single house around the temple. Now there are at least 50 houses surrounding the structure. If the temple didn't have the huge wall to protect it, we could have lost it by now," says P Ramachandran, a national award-winning teacher and a heritage enthusiast, who has been living in Tiruppuvanam since his childhood.
The temple, situated 18-km from Madurai on the Manamadurai Road, is maintained by the Sivagangai Devasthanam. According to K Sundar, a history teacher, the property around the temple still belonged to the Devasthanam.
"Some people who leased out the land have constructed houses. They have not vacated it and still live on the leased land by paying a small amount to the devasthanam," he said. According to the Tamil Nadu District Gazetteers, published in 1972, the temple must have been in existence before the seventh century as Thirugnana Sambandar visited it. But white-washing and sand-blasting has destroyed many inscriptions and sculptures inside the temple. The surviving sculptures of Thirumalai Nayak and his consort at the entrance of the temple suggest that the temple must have undergone renovation in the later Nayak period.
"A lot of rare inscriptions on the walls are lost to white-washing and sand-blasting. But still there are a lot left. Since the temple was in existence in the seventh century, the inscriptions and art work in the temple must be studied in detail," said K Kalairajan, assistant registrar, Alagappa University.
According to myth, there was a holy water pond founded by the Sun God at the south-east corner of the temple. "Bones of corpses immersed in this water would become fragrant flowers. Hence the place is called Tiruppuvanam ('Tiru' in Tamil means sacred, and 'pu' denotes flower and 'vana' in Sanskrit means garden) meaning 'sacred flower garden'," according to the Gazetteers. People still bury the bones of the dead on the banks of the Vaigai river opposite the temple. However, lack of basic facilities in the temple irks locals. "Devotees come to visit the temple from afar. But even basic facilities like drinking water and public restrooms are lacking here," says Sundar.
Source - TOI
Considered as one of the fourteen sacred Pandyan temples, the Poovannanathaswamy temple, built around the late sixth century, shows how maintenance without vision could be detrimental to the existence of an ancient structure. Even though a huge outer wall still protects the structure from further encroachment, the temple is in a state of neglect.
"Encroachment is a big problem. When I was a child, there was not even a single house around the temple. Now there are at least 50 houses surrounding the structure. If the temple didn't have the huge wall to protect it, we could have lost it by now," says P Ramachandran, a national award-winning teacher and a heritage enthusiast, who has been living in Tiruppuvanam since his childhood.
The temple, situated 18-km from Madurai on the Manamadurai Road, is maintained by the Sivagangai Devasthanam. According to K Sundar, a history teacher, the property around the temple still belonged to the Devasthanam.
"Some people who leased out the land have constructed houses. They have not vacated it and still live on the leased land by paying a small amount to the devasthanam," he said. According to the Tamil Nadu District Gazetteers, published in 1972, the temple must have been in existence before the seventh century as Thirugnana Sambandar visited it. But white-washing and sand-blasting has destroyed many inscriptions and sculptures inside the temple. The surviving sculptures of Thirumalai Nayak and his consort at the entrance of the temple suggest that the temple must have undergone renovation in the later Nayak period.
"A lot of rare inscriptions on the walls are lost to white-washing and sand-blasting. But still there are a lot left. Since the temple was in existence in the seventh century, the inscriptions and art work in the temple must be studied in detail," said K Kalairajan, assistant registrar, Alagappa University.
According to myth, there was a holy water pond founded by the Sun God at the south-east corner of the temple. "Bones of corpses immersed in this water would become fragrant flowers. Hence the place is called Tiruppuvanam ('Tiru' in Tamil means sacred, and 'pu' denotes flower and 'vana' in Sanskrit means garden) meaning 'sacred flower garden'," according to the Gazetteers. People still bury the bones of the dead on the banks of the Vaigai river opposite the temple. However, lack of basic facilities in the temple irks locals. "Devotees come to visit the temple from afar. But even basic facilities like drinking water and public restrooms are lacking here," says Sundar.
Source - TOI
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