COLOMBO: India has pledged to give the Thiruketheeswaram Temple Restoration Society (TTRS), LKR 326 million (INR 13.65 crore) for the restoration of the ancient Thiruketheeswaram Kovil in Mannar in north west Sri Lanka.
An MoU was signed here on Monday by Ashok K Kantha, High Commissioner of India and V Kailasapillai, Chairman TTRS, in the presence of Basil Rajapaksa, Lankan Minister for Economic Development.
When Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited India in June, 2010, the Joint Declaration had mentioned the restoration of the temple with the assistance of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the College of Architecture and Sculpture, Mamallapuram, in Tamil Nadu.
India began to take an interest in renovating the temple when High Commissioner Ashok Kantha visited it. The All Ceylon Hindu Congress roped in Basil Rajapaksa, the Minister of Economic Development, into the restoration. The temple has now acquired the necessary infrastructure. It will soon have four gopurams.
A team comprising the Superintending Archeologist, ASI, Chennai Circle, and representatives of the College of Architecture and Sculpture, Mamallapuram, visited the temple in August, 2010. A detailed report of the temple was prepared, based on discussions with the Department of Archaeology, Government of Sri Lanka and the TTRS.
According to Kandaiah Neelakandan of the All Ceylon Hindu Congress, the shrine dedicated to Lord Shiva and Gowri Ambal was so famous that the Saiva saints of the 7th and 8th centuries, Thirugnanasambandar and Sundaramurthy Nayanar, had sung its praise. The temple was destroyed in the 16th century by the Portuguese.
In 1872, the Jaffna-based Saivite revivalist, Arumuga Navalar, started a movement to find the spot where the ancient temple was, and build a new one on it. By 1893, the spot had been identified. Land was purchased by a group of Nattukottai Chettiars, headed by Ra Arn Palaniappa Chettiar for LKR.3100.
They found the original Sivalingam buried at the site. The Sivalingam is now placed in the Western inner yard of the temple. Pujas, which had not taken place for 300 years, were begun in the late 1890s. In 1948, the Temple Restoration Society was formed by “Saiva Periyar” Sivapadasundaram along with Sir Kandaiah Vaithianathan and R Namasivayam.
In 1973, Namasivayam had got sculptures of the various deities done at the Tamil Nadu Government Arts College but these 446 stone sculptures could be brought to Lanka only 2005.
In 1976, a gopuram (tower) was built and kumbabhishekam was performed. The first Ther Vizha was celebrated in 1981.
In 1990, the temple went into Lankan army occupation as Eelam War II had broken out. It was under army occupation till the peace process began in 2002. A Kumbhabhishekam was conducted in 2003 and since then the temple has been active.