TN government has been violating Acts and Rules in the case of protecting Monuments, Temples etc., as pointed out by the CAG in its report March 2022.

TN government has been violating Acts and Rules in the case of protecting Monuments, Temples etc., as pointed out by the CAG in its report March 2022.

Government of Tamilnadu – Report No.6 of 2021 – Complaiance audit Report for the year ended March 2020: Actually, the Audit report of Tourism, culture and Religious Endowment Depatment runs into many pages with facts and figures, photos, lists of monuments etc[1]. The present government might dodge and escape blaming the previous government, but, the people of Tamilnadu know very well that the present Dravidian stock and Dravidian model, periyarist, atheist, anti-Hindu government has bee the worst as could be noted from its past record from 1960s. Their leaders have been well-known for breaking idols, beating Hindus God pictures with chappals, misappropriating temple funds and looting the temple properties. The Supreme and High Court cases, judgments and reports vouchsafe these details. The Hindu Business Line just published one[2]. Out of the 91 protected monuments in Tamil Nadu, the State’s archaeology department has taken guardianship of just one in Maligaimedu, Ulkota Village of Ariyalur district in 2004. Further, 45 out of the 91 monuments were in government lands and no efforts were made to acquire their ownership, it said[3]. Monuments for which rights/guardianships were not acquired, were vulnerable to damages or modifications, observed the Compliance Audit Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) for the year ended March 31, 2020[4].

Modification done: The Tamil Nadu’s Department of Archaeology, which identifies, conserves and preserves ancient monuments, has failed to acquire ownership of 99 per cent of the declared protected monuments.

• A notified protected monument at Vishnu Koil, Ulagapuram, a stone temple with a unique style and inscriptions of Rajendra Chola I era (1012-044 CE), the villagers, had constructed an additional superstructure. . The officials identified it in September 2016 after the completion of 15 ft of additional structure. They stopped the unauthorised construction in November 2017.
• Within the protected area of Karunguzhi Fort built by the Mohammeddans in 17th Century CE, a sewage treatment plant (STP) was constructed by the Karunguzhi Town Panchayat, damaging the monument. The construction activities could not be stopped since the department did not have any right over the property as per the revenue records. The State government in July 2021 responded by stating that the appropriate steps are being taken, the report said.

After a monument is declared protected, Section 4 (1) of the Tamil Nadu Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological sites and Remains Act, 1966 (Act) empowers the department to acquire right over the structure and the surrounding land by outright purchase, lease or as a gift. When the land in which the protected monument is located does not have an owner, the department may, by notification, assume the guardianship of the monument.

Human vandalism: There was human vandalism; oil accretion; sport formation; vegetative growth and lack of physical protection in monuments.

  At the famous Thanjavur Palace constructed by the rulers of Thanjavur Nayak Kingdom (1535 CE) in 12.61 hectare and served as the official residence of the Thanjavur Maratha, the Mural and Stucco images in the Darbar Hall and Arsenal Tower were faded due to lack of maintenance.

  Human vandalism was seen in five monuments – Jain Beds at Yanaimalai; Kongarapuliyankulam; Meenakshipuram; Thiruvadrur and Solavandipuram.

  A stone crushing mill was functioning within the protected areas of the Forty-Four British Soldiers Tomb in Thoothukudi district.

The State government may declare that the identified ancient monuments should be completed on a priority to enable their maintenance and preservation effectively. The government should ensure adequate steps are taken to maintain the protected monuments and fill up vacant technical posts, the Audit suggested.

November 2021-  HC orders Audit report of Temples should be submitted within two weeks: The 36,000 temples, thousands of Mutts and crores of the worth of properties have been regularly embroiled by the vested parties and the violations going to courts. But, most of the cases have been purposely kept pending in the courts, so that the lessees, encroachers and illegally sold and bought persons cool of and enjoy the temple properties. Only a few cases come to courts and get reported in newspapers. R Shanmugasundaram, Advocate General, made the submission before the division bench comprising acting judges, Justice R Mahadevan and Justice PD Audikesavalu[5]. The judges were hearing a petition by Rangarajan Narasimhan, who prayed for a direction to the HR&CE to audit all the temples in the state. On recording the submissions made by the AG, the bench adjourned the matter for two weeks. Also, in another case, Rangarajan Narasimhan wanted the court to direct the government for the appointment of trustees to the HR&CE temples[6]. Responding to this, the AG contended that applications were invited for the post of trustees. But after that, nothing would be reported in the media and the readers and public slowly forget the issue also.

Temple properties sold illegally: The Madras High Court ordered a roving inquiry into a case related to the alleged illegal sale of the properties of a temple in Krishnagiri. Justice R Suresh Kumar, issuing the orders, expressed his shock over the inaction of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department, and temple trustees, in retrieving properties illegally sold by third parties[7]. The judge noted that neither the department nor trustees took steps to retrieve two properties, illegally sold by third parties in 2001 and 2007, until a petition was filed by A Radhakrishnan, president of Thiruthondargal Sabai. He had alleged that the properties of the Mariamman temple in Avathanapatti were sold illegally[8]. The judge ordered an inquiry and an audit of accounts.  Directing the HR&CE to appoint an officer for the probe, he ordered a report to be filed within six weeks. Again, after six weeks or one and half months what happened is not known[9]. The cases are regularly filed, the issues get exposed but the TN government is unmoved[10]. It is the specific case of the petitioner that the respondents have been violating, destroying and altering the heritage structures, icons, inscriptions, murals and paintings of the temples by claiming to act as per the MPPRI Rules framed under the HR&CE Act. They have not obtained the necessary approval from the Government for carrying out the civil works including construction, renovation, restoration, conservation, repairs etc., inside and adjacent to the temple premises and its properties. Hence, the MPPRI Rules may be declared as ultra vires the clauses (xvii) and (xix) of subsection (2) to Section 116 of the HR&CE Act. The Hindutva groups that contain Central Govt nominated advocates do not work in unison and cooperation like their opponents. In fact, propaganda has been going on among the so-called “Hindutwa” groups, that is exhibited openly in the social media. With the political ambitions, perhaps, they have been colluding with the corrupt.

© Vedaprakash

26-03-2022

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[1] Government of Tamilnadu – Report No.6 of 2021 – Complaiance audit Report for the year ended March 2020. Tourism, culture and Religious Endowment Depatment, Chapter-II,  Paras. 2.1.9.1 to 2.1.16, pp.11-25.

[2] The Report can be downloaded from here:

https://cag.gov.in/webroot/uploads/download_audit_report/2020/Compliance Audit Report 2019-20 English-0623c51bb3eeb55.00602218.pdf

[3] The Hindu Business Line, CAG indicts Tamil Nadu for failing to own most of the protected monuments, T.E. Raja Simhan |Updated On: Mar 25, 2022.

[4] https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/national/cag-indicts-tamil-nadu-for-failing-to-own-most-of-the-protected-monuments/article65258295.ece

[5] DtNext, Tamil Nadu temples audit reports in 2 weeks, Published: Nov 19, 2021 02:33 AM;

Updated: Nov 19, 2021 02:34 AM

[6] https://www.dtnext.in/News/TamilNadu/2021/11/19023338/1329558/Temples-audit-reports-in-2-weeks.vpf

[7] New Indian Express, Madras High Court orders roving inquiry into sale of temple assets,  Published: 19th December 2021 04:02 AM  |   Last Updated: 19th December 2021 04:02 AM.

[8]    https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/tamil-nadu/2021/dec/19/madras-high-court-orders-roving-inquiry-into-sale-of-temple-assets-2397232.html

[9] Madras High Court – T.R.Ramesh vs The State Of Tamil Nadu on 24 August, 2021 –                                                                                            W.P.No.17468 of 2016; IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS; DATED : 24.08.2021

                                                             CORAM

                                    THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE R.MAHADEVAN

                                                              AND

                                   THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE P.D.AUDIKESAVALU

                                                       W.P.No.17468 of 2016

                     T.R.Ramesh                                                   … Petitioner

v.

1. The State of Tamil Nadu, rep.by its Secretary, Department of Tourism, Culture and   Religious Endowments,  Secretariat, Chennai – 600 009.

2. The Commissioner, Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments, 119, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Nungambakkam, Chennai-600 034.                             … Respondents.

[10]https://indiankanoon.org/doc/15186241/

Hindu Temples of Tamilnadu under systematic destruction!

Hindu Temples of Tamilnadu under systematic destruction!

T. S. Subramanian has pointed out the deteriorating condition of murals in temples many times[1]. He should be congratulated to bring out such facts with concerned feelings expressed in his writings. However, the concerned and connected people have not taken any action to annul such vandalizing processes going on in the name of renovation, administration and other actions. The recent article “Targets of destruction” has been provoking, but we have to wait and see the response of the authorities.

Target of destruction: He starts with the appropriate beginning[2]: “Art, in more than 50 temples and three palaces in Tamil Nadu, is being mutilated” and explains the condition as follows: “Temples in Tamil Nadu are repositories of history, with inscriptions, sculptures, murals, bronzes, carvings, architecture and so on. The inscriptions provide valuable insights into the history of the period during which the temples were built, the village administration that prevailed, elections conducted for its assemblies, taxes collected, boards set up for the maintenance of lakes, ponds and canals, donation of land for Brahmin settlements, gifting gold for temple maintenance, etc.  There are more than 50 temples and three palaces in Tamil Nadu with murals. The palaces are Ramalinga Vilasam in Ramanathapuram and those at Bodinayakanur near Madurai and Padmanabhapuram in Kanyakumari district. While just four or five temples have murals dating back to the Pallava period (seventh to ninth century CE) and the Chola period (10th and 11th century CE), the majority of the murals belong to the Vijayanagar and the Nayak periods (14th to 17th century CE). The Brihadeeswara temple in Thanjavur have murals belonging to the Chola, the Nayak and the Maratha reigns.

Visual archives:  The mural masterpieces are visual archives on the history of the period, coronation rituals, the dress or the jewellery that men and women of those days wore, their hairstyle, musical instruments, the battles that they fought, the weapons used and so on. There are several Jain temples that have wonderful murals based on the Jain traditions, the Tirthankaras and the Yakshis. A favourite subject of many of the artists of those times was episodes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and some of the artists even took care to write the labels for the episodes (captions) in Tamil or Telugu. Unfortunately in Tamil Nadu, the murals, the inscriptions, the sculptures and carvings have become targets of destruction and vandalism. The officials of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) Department, who administers the temples, are to be blamed for this state. Most often, these officials fail to appreciate and preserve these splendid works due to lack of knowledge of history.

How Meenakshi Temple was targeted? In the famous Meenakshi temple, Madurai, several historic mandapams have become shopping complexes. The Pudhu mandapam, the Ashta Sakti mandapam, Veera Vasantharayar mandapam and Meenakshi Nayakar mandapam teem with hundreds of shops, obstructing from view pillars with incredibly beautiful sculptures. A scholar on the history of the Meenakshi temple was displeased that its 1,000-pillared mandapam, with superb sculptures, has become ‘a studio’ now, with an incongruously gleaming granite floor, skewed focus lights and a big sculpture of Nataraja painted in black! Several years ago, the earthen bed of the temple’s famous ‘Golden Lotus’ tank (Pottramarai Kulam) was cemented up, with the result that no water stays in the tank now and it looks barren now. The HR and CE officials of the temple also whitewashed hundreds of beautiful murals, painted on the walls of the northern corridor of the Golden Lotus tank, portraying the ‘Tiruvilaiyadal,’ in the first quarter of 1996.

In a state of disrepair: While sculptures and carvings can survive for centuries because they have been chiselled out of granite, murals are vulnerable to nature. Since these murals were painted with natural dyes on mandapam walls or ceiling, they easily lend themselves to vandalism from devotees. Besides, they are exposed to sun or seepage of water from rain. Gaps between the granite slabs that form the roof of the mandapams lead to seepage of water due to rain and the sidewalls begin to ‘sweat.’ The lime plaster which forms the base for the murals has a tendency to absorb the water. When rain water falls on the murals painted on the ceiling or walls, fungus develops and the murals start peeling off. Smoke from the camphor (lit by the devotees) and from the oil lamps damage the paintings. Besides, they suffer from desecration at the hands of the HR and CE officials and devotees. Officials have fixed scores of metres of electric wires on the murals on the walls of the mandapams, installed switch boxes and tube lights on them, as it has happened in several places on the splendid murals in the Devaraja Swamy temple at Kanchipuram, portraying the 108 Divya Desam murals.

Other examples of vandalism: Extremely rare murals painted on wood in the Tirukkutraleeswarar temple at Tirukkutrala Chitra Sabha in Tirunelveli district have been vandalised. At the Siva temple at Patteeswaram, paintings were sandblasted in 1998 in the name of cleaning the surfaces on which they were painted. The paintings portrayed Lord Siva presenting a palanquin studded with pearls to the Saivite saint Tirugnana Sambandar because he could not bear to see his devotee walking in the sun. Temple officials sandblasted another row of paintings narrating the life of a mythical king who had no child but was blessed with a child after praying to Siva at Patteeswaram. Officials of the Lakshminarasimhar temple at Sevilimedu, near Kanchipuram, whitewashed them. They do not exist today.  Tales of destruction and desecration of these invaluable murals in temples in Tamil Nadu do not end with this list. What happened to the paintings at the Meenakshi temple at Madurai, the Trilokyanatha Jaina temple at Tiruparuttikunram near Kanchipuram, another Jaina temple at Karanthai near Kanchipuram and the Ramalinga Vilasam Palace in Ramanathapuram town take the cake.

Why this targested vattcks of vandalism? What the Mohammedan and the Europeans rulers could have done during their reigns is carried on in India, that too, after “independence” by the Indians by themselves. Ironically, “Hindu Religious & Endowment Board” under the control of proclaimed atheist, rationalist and particularly anti-Hindu ideologists for the last 70 years. The staff and officers entering into the department of HR&CE have been ideologists of all sorts of such category and some non-Hindus have also been there. And this vandalism is not done on one day, but carried on systematically. Whenever any official function comes, they carry out such destruction easily under the guise of celebration. The moment the temple comes under the control of HR&CE, any official comes into a temple, an office is constructed inside temple, that office is converted into some sort of lodge and then star-type accommodation, the temples start losing their sanctity. Perhaps, God is leaving the place. Under such circumstances, these modern day vandals, ideologists and rulers start their destruction.

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[1] http://www.thehindu.com/arts/history-and-culture/article2109633.ece?viewImage=1

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/history-and-culture/article2109633.ece?viewImage=3

http://www.thehindu.com/arts/history-and-culture/article2109633.ece?viewImage=6

[2] http://www.thehindu.com/arts/history-and-culture/article2109633.ece?homepage=true