The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Capturing temple marvels for posterity

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Monday, Apr 07, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Capturing temple marvels for posterity

R. Sairam

Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple’s sculptures are photographed using digital cameras

— File photo

A view of Sri Meenakshi Amman Temple (South Tower) in Madurai.

MADURAI: Thousands of sculptures in the towers of the famous Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple here are being documented for posterity.

Each and every sculpture in the towers has been photographed using digital cameras to ensure that the ongoing renovation works do not alter its pristine beauty or heritage.

“Sculptures in nine of the 14 towers are being documented. Each sculpture on these huge towers is being photographed individually and assigned a number,” B. Raja, Joint Commissioner, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, and Executive Officer of the temple told The Hindu here on Sunday.

The numbers would indicate which position the sculpture occupies in which tower, down to the last detail including in which tier and row it is. The albums would also serve as research papers for the future generations, he said. The sculptures in the five main towers of North, East, West, South and the ‘Raja Gopuram’ are being covered apart from four other ‘five-tiered’ towers.

The West Tower possesses around 1,100 sculptures and the south tower around 1,500, he said. Another set of documentation would be carried out after the renovation works were completed. This would help in comparing the sculptures before and after the renovation works.

Albums would be prepared and the pictures would also be stored in the digital format, Mr. Raja said. Photographing of all the sculptures in the nine towers has been completed.

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