MADURAI: Amid ongoing court cases over lighting of deepam at the deepathoon (stone pillar) atop the Thiruparankundram hill, members of Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK) on Tuesday submitted a petition to Madurai Collector K J Praveen Kumar urging him to prevent the administration of the Sikandar Badusha Dargah from hoisting ceremonial flag for the sandanakoodu festival on the ‘kallathi tree’ (sacred tree) located near the dargah at the hilltop. Meanwhile, members of the Madurai Federation for Religious Harmony — citing an RTI reply from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) — have demanded that what is being called as deepathoon is actually a two-century-old survey stone and it must be declared as a ‘historical monument’.
In his petition, HMK chief M Solaikannan has claimed that the dargah administration has hoisted a red flag with a crescent symbol on the sacred and historically-significant ‘thalaviricham kallathi tree’, which belongs to the Thiruparankundram temple. “Dargah administration is also planning to hoist the same flag again on the day of the sandanakoodu festival. It must be stopped,” he said.
Seeking protection for the ‘sacred tree’, he demanded that the red flag be removed, and a flag with rooster emblem, which represents the temple, be hoisted there.
Meanwhile, advocate S Vanchinathan of the Madurai Federation for Religious Harmony, in his petition to the district administration, said the two stones near the dargah mistaken for deepathoon are actually Geometrical Trigonometrical (GT) survey markers established in 1808-09 and 1871, and the same has been confirmed by RTI documents obtained from the ASI by one J Abdul Jabbar in 2022.
Vanchinathan clarified that the real Nayak-era deepathoon is located near the Uchipillayar Temple atop the Tiruparankundram Murugan Temple.
He also pointed out that attempts to light lamps near the survey stones in 1862 and 1912 were stopped by courts, noting that there has never been a tradition of lighting lamps there and that such acts could disturb public order.
TNIE could not reach Arulmigu Subramaniyaswamy Temple Executive Officer N Yagna Narayanan for comments.