Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) P. K. Sekarbabu on Sunday launched the work to build the wooden temple car of the Sundareswarar temple at Kovur in Kancheepuram district. The temple car would cost ₹99 lakh of which ₹50 lakh would be provided by the department and the rest would be raised through public contributions.
The 36-foot-high, 14-foot-wide, 5-tier tall car would take a year to complete. “It has been 30 years since the temple car was brought out in procession and the old one is in a bad shape. This temple is estimated to be at least 800-years-old,” he said.
He said that the department, along with devotees, has also set the ball rolling for the conduct of kumbabhishekam of the temple, which was last conducted in 2008. A total of ₹70 lakh is the estimate for the works, including carrying out repairs to the Rajagopuram, the sannidhis of Lord Sundareswarar and Devi Soundarambikai, that of Nethra Vinayakar and Subramaniyar, and the restoration of the tank. The balalayam of the idols will commence by mid-September, he said.
Minister for MSME T. M. Anbarasan appealed to Mr. Sekarbabu to popularise the Navagraha temples around Chennai city.
Spiritual tours
Like last year, the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) department will arrange spiritual trips to famous Amman temples during this Aadi month. The trips will be arranged in Chennai, Tiruchi, Madurai and Thanjavur districts in association with the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC).
In Chennai, two trips with different sets of temples are to be arranged. “The spiritual tours would be arranged according to the demand. Last year, we found that devotees visited temples more on Fridays and Sundays. Around 850 persons took the tours with those in Chennai being the highest,” said an official of the HR&CE department.
Those taking the tours would be provided with lunch at the temple where they would be visiting. This would be arranged from the free Annadhanam scheme. Devotees would also be provided prasadam and would not have to wait in queue for the darshan. A guide would accompany them to explain the history, legend and architecture of the temples. For further details, log onto www.ttdconline.com or call 044 – 25333333, 25333444 or toll free number 1800 4253 1111.
