Chief Sthapathy inspects Rameswaram temple

RAMANATHAPURAM: M Muthaiah, Chief Sthapathy of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowment, inspected the idols and cars (vahanams) at Lord Ramanatha Swamy Temple in Rameswaram on Tuesday.Express published a feature on the damages in some idols of the deities and some structures of the temple last week. Pakshi Sivarajan had filed a writ plea before the Madurai Bench of the High Court pointing out the damages in the idols.Therefore, the Commissioner for HR and CE had directed Muthaiah to inspect the temple and the idols. He started by inspecting the Panchaloka Vinayagar idol and examined the damage in Thiruvatchi (an arch of the idol). He noticed the damaged ear of Panchaloka Goddess Theivanai Amman.Moreover, the silver Thiruvathchi of the idol was also found damaged. The Thiruvathchi of Lord Somaskandar was found with minor damages and the pedestal of goddess Valli Amman idol was also found damaged. The Thiruvatchi of Sethumadhava Perumal, and the Thiru Chakkaram of the idol were found to be loose. The Kathai (a weapon) of the Sethu Madhava Perumal was also missing. A portion of the weapon (malu) of Lord Ramanatha Swamy made of gold, including pedestal of the idol, was found damaged. The Sthapathy instructed the temple administration to repair the granite idols of Sametha Subramania Swamy erected near the Lord Ramanatha Swamy temple. Muthaiah told media that on representations that some of the idols were damaged, and on instructions by the Commissioner of HR&CE, he had come to inspect the idols and cars in the temple.