Tamil Nadu - Nagercoil   

Many temple tanks neglected: study

Nagercoil: The Department of Botany and Research Centre of Scott Christian College, including eminent scholars and students, conducted a survey of the sorry state of temple tanks and ponds in different parts of the district recently.

According to their study, many temple tanks were in a neglected state. Some were land filled like the Chettikulam tank in Nagercoil. Many of the temple tanks were full of aquatic weeds and the devotees could not have a holy dip. Theppathiruvila was a distant dream for the devotees, as the temple tanks were either encroached upon by the influential persons or polluted.

Kanyakumari was sacred to most of the people as the Land’s End and also having the reputation of the confluence of tri-sea i.e. Bay of Bengal, Arabian Ocean and Indian Ocean. This land was noted for thousands of small and big temples and hundreds of sacred groves. Many temples have water sources, associated with them and most of them were temple ponds or even river, river lets and springs.

The temple ponds were usually dug in the places depending on the water availability as good drainage facilities. These were all maintained in a clean state as they were in the temple premises and people used to take a holy dip before entering in to the temple. Further there would be a ‘theppa thiruvizha’ once in every six months associated with car festival of big temples. Associated with this festival there would be an annual cleaning and the maintenance of the pond. Some of the ponds have natural filling and drainage mechanism, which were really the examples of engineering skills of the ancestors.

Kanyakumari district was blessed with a large number (more than 350) nature temples, scared groves (mostly of the ancestral worship), which was not having an organised water source. But bigger temples would have a specially constructed water source or a bigger river nearby. The permanently constructed water sources would be known as ‘thirukulam.’

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