The Madras High Court appointed committee has asked the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department to give its response to the questionnaire with regard to guidelines on renovation of Tirvottiyur Thiyagaraja Swamy Temple and Triplicane Parthasarathy Temple.
The questionnaire was prepared by the committee constituted by the First Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam. The panel was headed by amicus curie and former Advocate-General P.S. Raman. The other members include noted archaeologist R. Nagaswamy, advocate C. Kanagaraj, Aparajitha Vishwanath, Prof. Swaminathan, and K. Balasubramaniam.
Taking suo motu note of media reports that the government had failed to set up the heritage committee even after enacting a law three years , the court clubbed it with a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by S. Srikumam, secretary of the Heritage Conservation Society.
In his petition, Mr. Srikumar had alleged that the HR&CE officials had mindlessly meddled with the affairs of the 16-century Thiyagaraja Swamy temple. They had built a modern office with toilet right next to a shrine on the temple complex and digging centuries-old granite floor.
The committee was mandated to visit temples of historical, religious, architectural and inscriptional significance under the control of HR&CE Department and report on the current status of preservation and nature of renovation work under way or completed.
The study focused on inscriptions, sculptures, paintings, murals and temple structure, including different structures within the temple ‘prahara’ and all the associated mandapams of the temple. It also submitted an interim report to the court after visiting Mamallapuram, Sri Parthasarathy Swamy Temple in Triplicane and Thyagarajaswamy Temple at Thiruvottiyur.
“The preservation and renovation works were evaluated against two guidelines: The Preservation Manual authored by John Marshal, the founding director of the Archaeological Survey of India, and the manual issued by the HR&CE Department to its executive officers and the trustees of the temples,” said Mr. Nagaswamy. A simple questionnaire prepared by him was used to ascertain availability of basic information for undertaking preservation and restoration with the temple management.
“We have asked whether the temples have any prepared measured drawings of plans and elevation of all or any of the structures and whether they have published any book or authentic historical note [not mythology and sthalapurana],” said Mr. Nagaswamy.
The temples have also been asked whether they have list of inscriptions or ancient documents relating to the temple structures and whether they have documented all sculptures and structures in different parts of the temple.
Besides asking the temple authorities to reveal whether copies of inscriptions on the temple walls and floors have been documented and published, the committee has also demanded whether ‘agama,’ ‘vasthu’ and literary texts were followed for worship.
The study focused on inscriptions, sculptures, paintings, murals and temple structure
