Unidentified persons have stolen 10 panchaloha idols from a cave temple in Malamanjunur Pudur village near Tiruvannamalai town.
The police said the Chitrapadaiyar Eshwar cave temple in the village, located around 35 km from Tiruvannamalai town along Jawadhu Hills, had three idols of god Eshwar, two of goddess Eshwari and five of Veerabhadra Swamy.
Among the Veerabhadra Swamy idols, four weighed 3 kg each while one, donated by a local devotee N. Ramaswamy in 2019, weighed 1.25 kg. The other five idols weighed 5 kg each. All the idols measured around one feet in height. Except for the 2019 one, the village residents have preserved the idols in the open cave temple over many generations.
The theft came to light on Wednesday when a group of villagers and local priests went to the temple as part of its upcoming consecration. They had kept the idols in earthen pots inside the cave, where only one person could enter. They found the pots open and the idols missing. Last time they had noticed the pots intact was a few weeks ago.
“The open cave temple was visited mostly by villagers during auspicious days. However, the idols remained safe all these years,” the police said.
Residents said as per tradition, the consecration of the cave temple was done once in three years when all the idols in the temple were taken by procession down the hillock to the nearby bank of the Thenpennai. Rituals were performed on the river bank, where devotees from at least 10 neighbouring villages participated. After the consecration, the idols were placed back in the open cave, and the villagers returned to the foot of the hillock on a narrow pathway.
“All these years, we left the idols in the open cave because we believed no one would dare to steal the panchaloha idols. Now, we have lost them,” said K. Sargunam, a resident.
The police said the perpetrators could have climbed over the 150-feet hillock and gained entry into the cave temple . “It was a well-executed plan, and a few persons might have hidden near the hillock at night. However, the modus operandi is not yet clear,” a policeman said.
A case has been registered by the Thanipadi police.
