Provide training, knowledge & skills in restoring temples to people: M Venkaiah Naidu

CHENNAI: Reminding that the 2015 December deluge in Chennai and the present water crisis in the metro was the result of abject neglect of water bodies and encroachments into them, Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu called upon the people to be more concerned about nature and involve in collective efforts to restore the culture and spiritual heritage of the nation.

 “There is every need to conserve and protect our culture, language and spiritual heritage, collectively, so get involved. The government should not be left alone and that’s why Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched initiatives such as Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Swachh Bharat and even promoted yoga,” the Vice President said.

Mr. Venkaiah was speaking after launching the book  Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam: Preserving antiquity for posterity here on Saturday.

 Expressing concern over the lack of care relating to archaeological sites he said those innumerable treasures should not be allowed to be buried under the weight of relative neglect and inertia. “As a society everyone has a responsibility in preserving and protecting our cultural and spiritual heritage,” he said and recalled his visit to Chennai during the December deluge.

 “When I visited the flood affected areas, people told me that encroachments into ponds had resulted in heavy flooding. Now you are seeing a new suffering due to water crisis,” Mr. Venkaiah said and pointed out to the encroachments into temple lands and said the lands belonging to the temples should be restored. India, he said, has many priceless treasures of art and architecture, song and dance, poetry and theatre, mythology and theology, and there is an imperative need to preserve and protect all structures and monuments of historical and cultural importance.

 While asking government and civil society organisations to strive together to preserve India’s tangible and intangible cultural heritage, the Vice President described the Unesco award winning effort on restoring the heritage temple at Srirangam - Sri Ranganatha Swamy, is a beginning in recent years to build public-private partnership to preserve and protect monuments and propagate cultural traditions and art forms. He said it was the sacred and patriotic duty of every citizen to preserve, protect and present our antiquities to the next generations. “We have an onerous responsibility as inheritors of a grand tradition. We cannot rest on our past laurels,’ he added.

Mr. Venkaiah complimented the Indian Culture and Heritage Trust, Venugopalaswamy Kainkaryam Trust, Sri Ranganathaswamy temple board of trustees’ chairman Venu Srinivasan for taking up the conservation of Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Srirangam.