The Siva temple at Panaiyapuram in Tamil Nadu was to be demolished to make way for widening the Vikkiravandi-Thanjavur highway.
Villagers of Panaiyapuram in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu are an overjoyed lot and they cannot wait anymore to honour their saviours. They want to erect big banners, expressing their “gratitude” to the saviours, and present them with turbans and shawls. A reception too will be organised. The saviours are National Highways Authority of India officers, who, heeding the protests of locals, have decided not to demolish the 1,300-year-old Siva temple in the village to make way for widening the Vikkiravandi-Thanjavur National Highway (NH) 45C. The villagers will also honour Tamil Nadu officials who convinced the NHAI not to pull down the temple.
When the plans to widen the NH-45C, cutting through the temple, became public, residents of Panaiyapuram, Pappanapattu, Mundiyampakkam, Kappiyampuliyur and Thuravi forgot their caste and class divisions and rose as one to protest against it. For, the widened highway would have shot like an arrow through the ancient Siva temple and its sanctum sanctorum for Panankateesvarar, and the shrines for his consort Satyambikai, Ganesa and Muruga would have been razed to their foundation. Inscriptions belonging to Rajendra Chola (regnal years 1012 CE to 1043 CE), his son, Rajendra Chola II, Adhi Rajendra, Kulotunga I, Jatavarman Sundara Pandiya I, Vikrama Pandiya and others would have disappeared. (The Hindu, Road that may erase history, April 6, 2012).
This enraged the villagers, who were determined not to allow the temple demolition to go through. They petitioned Villupuram Collector V. Sampath, NHAI officials and Union Ministers. The State government’s land acquisition officer feared the issue would lead to a law and order problem. The NHAI officials informed their headquarters about the protests.
The NHAI has now decided “to restrict the proposed ROW [right of way] width to avoid acquisition of the ancient temple near Panaiyapuram village by restricting the extent of land acquisition up to the existing compound wall of the temple on the LHS [left hand side] of the temple portion only.” The NHAI has stated this in a letter, dated October 6, 2012, to the Competent Authority and the Special District Revenue Officer (LA), National Highways-45C, Villupuram. In an earlier communication also, dated September 20, 2012, the NHAI said the “four-laning of NH-45C will be accommodated between the existing compound wall of the temple and the existing Veeranam pipeline on the other side.” When contacted, an NHAI official said: “The temple will not be touched.”
The NHAI’s decision has delighted the villagers. R.P. Pugazhendi, ex-president, Panaiyapuram panchayat, called the decision “the will of God.” Residents of Panaiyapuram and other villagers, he said, “forgot their caste and class and fought together to save the historic temple.”
He added: “We will host the NHAI and the State government officials a reception. We will honour them by giving them shawls and turbans. We will erect a hoarding, expressing our gratitude to them, at the highway intersection, where the roads branch off to Chennai, Puducherry, Thanjavur and Villupuram.”
R.P. Athiyaman, who belongs to Panaiyapuram but lives in Chennai, praised the NHAI officials for respecting “our sense of history and sentiments.”
R. Nagaswamy, former Director of the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology, said the Saivite saint Tirugnana Sambandar, who lived in the seventh century CE, had sung verses praising the temple’s Sivalinga. Rajendra Chola-I’s inscription called the deity Nethroddharaka Swami (i.e., the deity will cure eye ailments).
Rajendra Chola I rebuilt the Panaiyapuram temple in honour of his woman personal assistant (“anukki” in Tamil) called Paravai and the town around the temple was called Paravaipuram.
The inscriptions of Rajendra Chola II (regnal years 1052 CE to 1064 CE), Adhi Rajendra (1068 CE to 1071 CE) and Kulotunga Chola I (1070 CE to 1122 CE) mention the gift of paddy, land and gold coins to the temple.
Keywords: Tamil Nadu Siva temple, Panaiyapuram, Vikkiravandi-Thanjavur highway, National Highway 45C
It was one of pleasant news. When THe Hindu Published About a proposal
of NHAI to demolish this temple, it was shocking. Now by united fight
of the villagers, logical representation of officials, better sense
prevailed on the minds Of NHAI competent authorities.
there are lot of less prominent temples having significant historical
background in our country. Some legislation should be made by
Government of India to protect Such temples , other religious places
and important heritage buildings which are facing threat while
expansion is planned for improvement of roads.
Good work done by Villagers and Govt. officials at the end.
However I can't imagine how some one can plan a National Highway cutting through 1300 year old temple. Shame on people who planned it that way!
Thanks to The Hindu for bringing this up to the media. Villagers proved that, they are in unity if a war comes.
The same mentality should come for city people to overcome such difficulties.
Why should the government construct the national Highway so close to the temple? Are all the roads in the country straight like a ruler? Are there no curves and bends on any road? Then why can't the government move a bit away from the temple while constructing the road? The most unfortunate part in India is that the politicians, the government officers, the ministers follow the rule-book. They forget that rules are framed for people to live comfortably. Rules are created for facilitating the lives of people, but people are not created for facilitating the continuance of rules. The law is for man, man is not for the law. Blind adherence to law or rules, and making our lives a hell that way, is utter stupidity.
Only god's will can prevail , but one thing more - why not govt is bringing a legisalation for protection and if not possible then relocation of historical monuments ?
Well done NHAI. The nation should do everything within its powers to
protect such national historical treasures and everything that belongs
to it. They can just change the course of the road to go around when
they find such monuments and its property.
There needs to be a National/State level body constituting National?
state Heritage site/Building/places etc to be protected by law not to be
touched. And it should be made public. and this law should be strictly
followed to preserve Our Heritage Places. Well done Hindu to bring this
news, and also Congratulations & well done to Local Community Members.
Its nice to hear that a 1200 yr old temple is preserved and not
demolished in the name of development.
At the same time the right of way(ROW) should not be reduced. The
highway' alignment should be changed such that it maintains uniform
width throughout. This will involve land acquisition but the villagers
must be ready for that.
Indians do not have any respect for old traditions and artifacts. We have to go to the museums in London to see our artifacts. In Madurai the old paintings which were made with colors from Flowers were white washed away. Nobody even cared. People are more bogged down with cinema stars and movies they really don't have time to think about old traditions
How on earth they can even think about demolishing such an ancient temple. It's high
time govt realizes the value of such sites and properly maintain.
Sad that the planning officers approved it in the first place. Democracy
doesn't mean we need protests to make existing laws function! A very
victorious occasion; but one that leaves lessons for everyone.
The road should not be adjascent to the compound wall of the temple.Adequate space should be provided to protect the temple from accedent prone vehicles,as one mishap will demolish the wall and who knows the temple itself.So the NHAI should be practical.
Its a stigma on NHAI to decide at first place to pull down a cultural heritage. Why did not ASI stop this at first place?.
In the US, they move structures off the road. The temple could be moved at the foundation, and reassembled to the side. Progress cannot always be hostage to sentiment; go ask the Chinese. If the strong economies were as silly as India, Indians would not have a chance to flock over there in the millions for jobs and a better lifestyle.
Besides the villagers who fought for the temple , " The Hindu" deserves
congratulations for highlighting the news of possible demolition. I
have travelled several times on the highway ( Chennai - Thanjavur)but I
could not see the temple. Tamil Nadu is the place where God lives and I
am very happy to read that this historical temple has been saved with
the effort of villagers and " The Hindu".
how can highways plan o demolish a historic site?
It is the government which shall protect the temples/monuments.Instead
now people have to petition the Govt. to tell them not to demolish the
temple! What a pity of this state!
God saved the day otherwise it could have flared up into a serious law and order problem. These are dilemas we are regularly facing in our lives today. We need the roads that is for sure and we also need the temples. In this case the width of the highway maybe was not compromised. But in cases where the width of the road has to be compromised and that particular patch becomes a bottleneck increasing road accidents it is a problem. Goverment of India should give serious thoughts on Heritage conservation laws. In a country like India there should be a provision within the laws that we can develop a dialogue between the developer and the people to be developed and come to an agreement. People in the vicinity of a heritage site/historical property should always be taken into confidence. If a temple has extra land lying unused then ofcourse it can be used for development but development of the type which should not cause harm to the temple and hurt the sentiments of the people.
If a highway borders very closely to a 1200 year old building, the heavy traffic on the highway will cause damage to the old structure. Is it so difficult to reroute it considerably away from the temple so that there is at least a half a kilometer distance between the temple walls and the highway.
It is of course a shame that in a predominantly Hindu country, an ancient Hindu temple of great cultural and emotional significance is not compulsorily excluded from the bulldozers of the highway authorities.
One has to wonder if the building in question were to be a church or a mosque currently in use, would anybody have dared to plan to erase it in the first place? Can you imagine the consequences? This kind of activity may unfortunately convert a peace loving hindu community to turn violent. The government has to be careful not to offend the religious sensitivities of people to whichever religion they belong.
“to restrict the proposed ROW [right of way] width to avoid
acquisition of the ancient temple near Panaiyapuram village by
restricting the extent of land acquisition up to the existing compound
wall of the temple on the LHS [left hand side] of the temple portion
only.”
Why so close? Is it not possible to move out the highway further. In
Italy, the govt takes every step to preserve the history buried under
which is in contrast to our senseless behavior to bring an highway
close to an ancient structure. Hats of to the villagers.
It is shame and disgrace that it came for debate. How did they come up with a plan to demolish 1200 years old temple. Thanks to Hindu for bringing this.
Who should care for heritage? is there anyone or it is just a show off of
passion and incredible India. Promote not to spit or diminish the beauty
by writing at heritage sites but demolish them if you require or wish.
Now that Highways are not going touch the oldest temple, why note Hindu religious Endowment,of state do something to renovate and further strengthen the temple structure and make arrangement for kumabaaabhisekam which goes good and go a long way of getting back
the appreciation from the local people .
It is good to hear historical monuments are not erased in the name of development; this happens very frequently in India, and the places start loosing the traditional cultural look. whereas, if you travel in Europe, you find every city and town, has it own type of appearance and constructions, and even the new shops and development, matches with the traditional look, and becomes a tourist attraction. It is better Indians also learn and respect their tradition, along with the development and growth, atleast from now on to have some traditions left out for future generations.
Its a shame it (the demolition) even came up for debate. How can anyone come up
with the idea of demolishing not only a historical but a cultural heritage dating back
to over 1200 years ago when most of the rest of the world where still in the dark
ages. Happy to note that common sense prevailed
Even 100 year old kabristhans in Delhi's street corners are treated as Heritage centres and are not rouched whereas here people have to fight for the preservation of a thousand year old Nayanmar skhethram. Long live India's secularism!!
Our cultural heritage is more prestigeous and it has to be protected at any cost. Thanks for Hindu to publish this news item.
This is definitely a welcome decision by NHAI and should be thanked to the fullest extent possible. Such grand old temples are not only a source of great cultural heritage but also a showpiece of architectural splendour. All possible means should be taken to protect and preserve such ancient temples which are also a source of splendid wisdom and knowledge. The people of the villages who represented this cause are the real heroes in this situation.
In the first place this situation should not have arisen. How did they ever plan a
highway cutting thro the temple. Good the villagers got together and stopped it but it should not have happened in the first place.
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