Chennai: As scores of temple idols, artifacts and paintings are unearthed following the arrest of octogenarian G. Deenadayalan, recently in the city, one issue that puzzles many is how idols are brazenly looted from ancient temples.
Following recurrent seizure of a large number of idols in Tamil Nadu, DC checks the scene of action in the ancient Sri Adhi Rathneshwarar Temple, Thiruvadanai in Ramanathapuram district.
The impressive temple Rajagopuram, seen from the nearby bus stand, Thiruvadanai, located about 460 km from Chennai, is the only immense structure in the whole area. This taluk headquarters lacks a railhead. It is connected only by road (about 70 km) from Ramanathapuram. Thiruvadanai, despite its age-old connection with Ramayanam, is still underdeveloped.
S. Chandrasekhara Gurukkal, the Sthanikar of this ancient temple has been offering prayers and performing pujas to Lord Adhi Rathneshwarar and Goddess Snehavalli for about four decades. Recalling the dark incident to DC in his life, he says the scaffolding was erected at the Rajagopuram as the temple was readying for Maha Kumbhabhishekam; and pitch darkness camouflaged the profoundly immoral and wicked act of robbing five Panchaloha idols from the ancient temple.
Panchaloha idols, including those of Vinayaka, Murugan with five-and-a-half feet high Vel (spear), Chandrasekhar and Bhavani were found missing (last year).
One night, two persons entered the temple, while their accomplice stayed outside. They broke open the locks of the huge temple doors, entered the vault where the Panchaloha idols were kept and took them away. The temple watchman who was the first to notice the broken locks, next morning, alerted the temple authorities and police.
The officials and police from the DSP office located in front of the temple took cognisance of the situation, made enquiries and by this time the locals began thronging the temple, though none was allowed inside as police investigation was on.
Surprisingly, the following morning, a few workers found the Vel abandoned amidst a paddy field and brought it to the temple. Realising that pujas could not be performed without idols, locals volunteered and made the idols of Vinayaka and Murugan, said S. Chandrasekhara Gurukkal.
The police did a marvellous job of tracing the culprits at Melur in Madurai and arrested them in Chennai in lightning speed and recovered the idols in a few days. But, sadly the idols could not be used as they were found broken, he
added.
“The theft was shocking. It was as if we lost a child. I could not sleep or eat till the police found the idols. It was during this time that we had fixed the ‘Upanayanam' for our son and were in a dilemma to conduct it. Our elders advised us to have the auspicious event performed inside the temple instead of cancelling it and as we began pujas for my only son’s Upanayanam in the temple, we heard the news of police recovering the idols after nabbing the robbers. Soon all the people in the vicinity came to the temple after hearing the news. It was almost like a festival, our Gods have returned,” the gurukkal added.
Looters target isolated shrines with no security
Temple looters appear to target isolated shrines with hardly any provision for security. The typical journey of stolen sculptures begin in ancient or small temples in Tamil Nadu. One smuggler who operated a large network and sold the idols of gods and goddesses abroad is Subhash Chandra Kapoor. His luck finally ran out in 2011. And 84-year-old G. Deenadayalan who used to smuggle these antique idols worth several hundreds of crores of rupees “smoothly and silently” for foreign buyers, was also caught recently. But the million dollar question as to how many are involved remains unanswered.
Official sources say they suspect Deenadayalan evaded the mandated process of taking antique certificates issued by Registration Officer of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). However, official sources claim the Chennai Circle of ASI had issued certificates only to non-antique artifacts.
