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1Brief look at the history of temples in IIT Madras
campusArun Ayyar, Harish Ganapathy, Hemanth C
Alumnus of Department of Electrical Engg., Indian Institute of
Technology Madras, Chennai-600036.Email: [email protected]
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engg., Indian
Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai-600036Email:
[email protected]
Department of Electrical Engg., Indian Institute of Technology
Madras, Chennai-600036Email: [email protected]
27-February-2014, Vijaya Varsha Maha Shivaratri.
I. INTRODUCTION
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) was commissioned in
1957. A part of the land for establishment of IITM was
transferred by the Raj bhavan. The land on which the existing
hostel zone is located belonged to the then Taramani village.
Some of the erstwhile Taramani villagers and their families
still reside in the area outside the existing Taramani gate of
IITM.
There are three temples in the IITM campus, namely (i) Sri
Jalakantheswara temple on the Delhi Avenue (ii) Sri Peeliamman
Temple on the Delhi Avenue near the stadium (iii) Sri
Varasidhdhi Vinayaka Temple behind Taramani Guest House. The
Taramani villagers used to worship the deities in these temples
before the establishment of IITM. However, no written material
is available with the temples regarding their history during the
pre-IITM period.
To reconstruct the history of these temples, informal interviews
were conducted with the people connected to the area before
and during the establishment of IITM. In order to gain the
archaeological view point we sought the help of Dr. Nagaswamy,
a renowned archaeologist and epigraphist. He served as the
Director of Archaeology of Tamil Nadu state Government for 22
years. This document is a summary of the findings of this
exercise.
II. SRI JALAKANTHESWARA TEMPLE
The Jalakantheswara temple is located near the main gate of IITM
on the Delhi Avenue. The main deity in this temple
is Lord Shiva worshipped in name of Sri Jalakantheswara along
with his consort Devi Katyayani. Prior to the establishment
(a) Sri Jalakantheswara (b) Devi Katyayani
Fig. 1. Photographs of Sri Jalakantheswara and Devi
Katyayani
of IITM, the Shiva linga was present under a mandapam with
thatched roof near the IITM lake area and was inspiring even
by its size. Residents of the nearby villages offered daily
worship to the Shiva lingam. During the establishment of IITM,
the residents of IITM then approached Mahaperiyavaa (Kanchi
Kamakoti Peethadhipathi Jagadguru Sri Chandrasekharendra
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2Saraswathi Swamiji) about the procedure to be followed for
worshipping the linga. He told them to construct a temple and
continue the puja.
When the question of naming the Lord came, He told them that
there was no need to give a new name to the lingam
since it had been previously worshipped by Appaya Deekshitar.
Appaya Deekshitar (1520-1593) was an Advaita Vedanta
scholar who composed the famous Margabandhu Stotram and
Atmarpana stuti. Mahaperiyavaa told that the lingam had been
previously worshipped as Jalakantheswara. He also directed them
to check the documents available in the nearby Raj Bhavan
for further details. According to the information furnished by
the Controller of Raj Bhavan area in 1959, the precincts of the
temple once formed the route from an ancient place of worship in
Vedashreni (present Velachery) to Thiruvanmiyur and had
been frequented by great saints including Appaya Deekshitar.
During a recent visit to Kanchipuram, Balaperiyavaa (Kanchi
Kamakoti Peethadhipathi Jagadguru Sri Shankara Vijayendra
Saraswathi Swamiji) mentioned that the then king performed the
Shastiabdapurthi (60th birthday) of Appaya Deekshitar in the
temple where the Jalakantheshwara lingam had been present.
The construction of the current Jalakantheswara temple started
around 1962 and got over by 1965. The vimana Kalasam
of Sri Jalakantheswara is about 300 kg. The first
kumbhabhishekam of the Sri Jalakantheswara temple was performed
on
18th June, 1965 in the holy presence of Puduperiyavaa (Kanchi
Kamakoti Peethadhipathi Jagadguru Sri Jayendra Saraswati
Swamiji). Sringeri Sharada Peethadhipati Sri Abhinava
Vidyatheertha Swamiji visited the temple on 7th November, 1965,
while
Mahaperiyavaa himself visited the temple on 20th February, 1966.
Based on the information available, the lingam is at least
400 years old.
In the souvenir printed for the Sri Jalakantheswara temple
kumbhabhishekam in 1986 the following text is present:
The story of the lingam, summarized from the reading of the
Kakabujander Nadi which was with the Raj Bhavan authorities
is as follows:
There was a Gandharva Kumaran by name of Vanavilangan. While he
was passing through the sky, he spotted
a lovely lake with a charming swan on it. He attempted to
capture and take the swan away but as the swan was
goddess Kali herself, she cursed Vanavilangan that he would
become a stone. The gandharva kumaran accepted
the punishment but prayed to the Goddess for redemption. The
Goddess relented and commanded him to build a
temple and perform penance as a stone, until he was redeemed by
the touch of holy feet of Thrikala Gnanis and saints.
Comforted by this blessing of the Goddess, he built a temple
where goddess rested and established a shivalingam at
the foot of which he lays as a stone for ages, until he regained
his original form. The lingam was shifted as years
passed, and once a king (hunter) attained salvation by spotting
it. Finally a Brahmin Yogi with great efforts lifted
the lingam and planted at the bank of the lake, where it was
subsequently found in 1959. The nadi describes the
shivalingam as a composite whole, fusing Lord Jalakantheswara
and Devi Katyayani as one cognate expression of
universal peace, prosperity and glory.
The following photographs in Fig.2 and Fig. 3 were taken from
souvenir printed during kumbhabhishekam of Sri Jalakan-
theswara temple conducted in 1986. We have included the other
photographs in the Photo Gallery section at the end.
Fig. 2. Kumbhabhishekam to Jalakantheswara temple vimanam in
presence of Puduperiyavaa. The vimana kalasam is about 300 kg. Also
seen in photographProf Krishnamurty.
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3Fig. 3. Jagadguru Sri Abhinava Vidyatheertha Swamiji of
Sringeri Sharada peetham visiting Sri Jalakantheswara temple on
07-Nov-1965. Also seen inphotograph Prof Krishnamurty.
Fig. 4. Mahaperiyavaa visiting visiting Sri Jalakantheswara
temple on 20-Feb-1966. Also seen in photograph Prof Krishnamurty,
Sri Y. S. Ramaswamy andSri T. R. Rajagopal. (Courtesy IITM Heritage
center)
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4III. SRI DURGA PEELIAMMMAN TEMPLE
This temple is located on the Delhi avenue near the stadium. The
main deity in this temple is Goddess Durga Peeliamman
who was worshipped as the grama devata/ yellai amman (the
protecting goddess of the village) by the people of the
Taramani
village. Before the establishment of IITM, there was small Devi
idol which the villagers used to worship. The villagers of
Taramani worshipped Durga Peeliamman as a benevolent goddess as
opposed to the usual fierce form associated with any yellai
amman. The vigrahas of Peeliamman and Vinayaka (present in the
Vinayaka temple) have been worshipped by the villagers
for many generations.
Fig. 5. Sri Durga Peeliamman temple
Fig. 6. Photograph of Sri Durga Peeliamman
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5The people mentioned an interesting ritual which persons with
health problems used to undertake once they were cured
of the disease after praying to Goddess Peeliamman. The ritual
was called Kodaikalyanam. The afflicted person would
take a shakthi karagam (pot filled with water) on their head and
go around the boundaries of other villages which were near
Taramani. The journey would start from Sri Durga Peeliamman
temple and go through Thiruvanmiyur, Kottivakkam, Perungudi,
Narayanapuram, Puzhidivakkam , Velachery, etc. villages and
finally end at Sri Durga Peeliamman temple. The person would
visit the grama devata temples of each of these villages before
returning back to Sri Durga Peeliamman temple. It was believed
Fig. 7. Sketch of route possibly taken for the Kodaikalyanam
ritual
that if a person with health problem would pray that they would
perform this ritual then it would cure the person of their
health problems. A sketch of the possible route using Google
maps is shown in Fig. 7. The exact route taken in those days
would be different from the one shown since we could not locate
the grama devata temples of the respective villages.
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6IV. SRI VARASIDHDHI VINAYAKA TEMPLE
Sri Varasidhdhi Vinayaka temple is situated in the hostel zone
behind Taramani Guest house. The main deity in this temple
is the Varsidhdhi Vinayaka. The temple also houses two Shiva
lingas.
A. Sri Varasidhdhi Vinayaka
The erstwhile Taramani villagers say that the Vinayaka murti has
been present in its current place since a long time. In fact
one of the persons we spoke to said, Yen paten nukku paten
kalatule irundu iruku. (The Ganesha murti has been there since
the time of my grandfathers grandfather). This easily makes it
at least 200 years old.
Fig. 8. Vigraha of Sri Varasidhdhi Vinayaka
B. Bhajana Matam and Tulasi Maadam
The people we spoke to mentioned that there was also a matam
with a Mahavishnu photo next to the Vinayaka murti where
the villagers used to conduct bhajans in the month of Margazhi
(Dec-15 to Jan-15). There was also a tulasi maadam, which
can be seen even now. As of today, the bhajana matam does not
exist. However, the same space is used for conducting lectures
on Bhagavad Gita on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Fig. 9. Tulasi maadam and Bhajana matam
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7C. Sri Adipureeshwara Lingam
The svayambhu Shiva Lingam adjacent to Sri Varasidhi Vinayaka is
worshipped as Sri Adipureeshwara. There was a security
officer by name of T. N. Venkatraman who joined IITM during its
establishment in 1959. He resided in the building where the
current Taramani Guest House exists. He was also affectionately
called as Bullet Iyer since he rode a Royal Enfield Bullet.
At that time, the place next to the Vinayaka murti was full of
thorns and dense growth. He found the svayambhu Shiva lingam
in the bushes and did the initial pujas.
When Mahaperiyavaa visited the Jalakantheswara temple on 20th
February 1966, He also visited this temple and performed
pujas to both Sri Varasidhdhi Vinayaka and Sri Adipureeshwara.
This information was provided to us by Smt. Shanta
Venkatraman (aged 85), w/o late T. N. Venkatraman who resides in
Adyar.
Brahmashri. Somu Gurukal, who was the priest at the temple
during the years (1976-2008), currently serving at Dandeesh-
waram temple, when contacted gave more information about Sri
Adipureeshwara. He told that Puduperiyavaa visited this
temple around 1975-1976. During his visit, Puduperiyavaa kept
his dandam on the lingam and went into deep meditation for
few minutes. He then instructed Somu Gurukal to take proper care
of Shri Adipureeshwara since the murti is a svayambhu
murti and also told him to establish an aavudayar (support stone
structure surrounding the lingam). Due to financial constraints
at that point of time, Shri Venkatraman provided a temporary
cement aavudayar which still exists. Somu Gurukal also cites
several instances when he found a snake curled around the
lingam.
Later in 2000, in order to preserve the deity a copper kavacham
was adorned to the lord. The kavacham is removed for 3
days in a year starting from purnima of thiru karthigai month
according to tamil almanac. During this period sambrani tailam
is applied in order to prevent the formation of moths and
insects etc.
(a) Sri Adipureeshwara Lingam (b) Sri Adipureeshwara with
Kavacham
Fig. 10.
D. Nandi
In front of the Adipureeshwara Shiva linga is a Nandi. Different
views of the Nandi are shown in Fig. 11.
Fig. 11. Different views of Nandi in front of Sri Adipureeshwara
in the Vinayaka Temple
From an archaeological viewpoint, Dr. Nagaswamys scholarly view
points about the Nandi are very interesting. According
to him, the Nandi was sculpted during the Pallava period. The
Pallava period ended around 850 A.D. The Pallava sculptors
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8fashioned the Nandi after a variety of bull called the
Nellore/Ongole Bull. The speciality of this variety was that the
distance
from the hump to the tail was larger than that of the other
bulls. Also this variety was characterised by a distinct hump,
short ears and small horns. The Nandis sculpted during the
Pallava period had the aforementioned characteristics while
those
sculpted during the later Chola and Pandya periods did not have
them. The nandi is sculpted from laterite stone. It is red in
color, but years of abhishekam have made the color black. He
estimated the Nandis age to be atleast 1200 years.
E. Sri Kailasanatha Lingam
This Shiva lingam is present behind the Vinayaka Sannidhi. While
digging for the foundation of the Ganga hostel, this
lingam was found in the ground. The lingam was initially placed
behind CCW office. In 2005, the lingam was shifted to
Vinayaka temple and placed behind the Vinayaka Sannidhi under a
Bilva tree.
Fig. 12. Sri Kailasanatha beneath the bilva tree
F. Black Stone behind Nandi
There is a tall black stone about 3 feet high behind the Nandi
as shown in Fig. 13. A photograph of the stone is shown
Fig. 13. Arrangement of Sri Adipureeshwara, Nandi and the stone
in the Vinayaka Temple
in Fig. 14(a). The photograph shows some distinct inscriptions
on the stone. Towards the bottom of the stone, 3 lines can be
seen which could possibly represent the symbol of a Trishul
(trident).
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9(a) Photo of the Stone (b) Wet paper on Stone
Fig. 14.
To read the inscriptions clearly, they had to be transferred on
to a paper. This process is called stone rubbing. One of the
team members had the experience of performing the process while
briefly working with Dr. V Vedachalam, a noted epigraphist.
The procedure used was as follows:
Wet unbleached thick paper is put on the stone and beaten with a
brush till an impression is formed on the paper.
A specially prepared dye is then applied gently on the surface.
As a result the depressed region will not be dark.
The paper is then removed carefully and dried.
Fig. 14(b) shows the result at the end of the above mentioned
procedure. As seen from the figure, the visibility of the
inscriptions
has improved drastically.
(a) Lower inscription- Pandya emblem (b) Upper inscription -
Vijayanagar emblem
Fig. 15.
Looking at the imprint, Dr. Nagaswamy said that it has two sets
of inscriptions, (i) the lower one is the older one while the
(ii) upper one is a later inscription. He explained the
inscriptions as follows:
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The lower inscription contains a sun, a moon and a sceptre. In
addition it also contains two curved lines on the sides.
The two curved lines are actually parts of two fishes. Hence,
the complete inscription consists of a sun, a moon, a sceptre
in the centre and two fishes on the sides. This was the old
royal emblem of the Pandya empire. On stone, the Pandyas
used to inscribe the fishes vertically and not horizontally.
This emblem might have been engraved in the 12th century.
The inscription on the top consists of a bull. Bull was the
emblem used by the Vijayanagara empire. This emblem might
have been engraved in the 15th century.
Based on the symbols present, he concluded that the stone might
have been a boundary stone used to mark a geographical
area like a village. Since the symbols of two different empires
are intact, it was likely that the boundary which was drawn
during the Pandya reign remained the same during the
Vijayanagara reign too.
V. DURGA DEVI VIGRAHA
During our meetings with the Taramani villagers, Sri Elumalai
mentioned that there is a small vigraha of Sri Durga Devi
beneath a banyan tree near swimming pool which the villagers
used to worship. The vigraha is made of black stone. Shown
below is the photograph of the vigraha.
Fig. 16. Vigraha of Durga Devi.
Dr. Nagaswamy estimates the age of this vigraha to be same as
that of the Nandi present in front of Sri Adipureeshwara
shrine. Hence, this vigraha of the Sri Durga Devi is also around
1200 years old. He is also of the opinion that the vigraha
might be that of one of the 7 matrukas (7 divine mothers).
VI. MISCELLANEOUS
Consider the following temples : (a) Sri Dandeeswaram temple in
Velachery (b) Sri Marundeeswarar temple in Thiruvanmiyur
(c) Sri Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore and (d) Karaneeswarar
temple in Saidapet. Few devotees mentioned that Sri Jalakan-
theswara temple is in line with 2 of the above mentioned 4
temples. Some devotees also mentioned that Sri Jalakantheswara
temple is at the centroid of the triange formed by taking 3 out
of the 4 temples.
In Fig. 17 we present the location of all the temples on google
maps. As can be seen from Fig. 17, location of Sri
Jalakantheswara temple is not exactly on the line joining Sri
Marundeeswarar and Sri Karaneeswarar temples nor is itexactly
on the line joining Sri Kapaleeswarar and Sri Dandeeshwaram
temples. The location of Sri Jalakantheswara temple is also not
the centroid of any of the triangles. However, since the Sri
Jalakantheswara lingam was found near the lake region, we
included
a marker in the approximate location, which may seem to be at
the centroid of the triangle formed by Sri Karaneeswarar, Sri
Marundeeswarar and Sri Dandeeswaram temples.
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Fig. 17. Map with location of various temples.
VII. SUMMARY
In this article, we have described the rich history of the
temples in the IITM campus. We have also included some rare
photographs so that they are preserved for posterity. The Nandi,
the black stone in Sri Adipureeshwara temple and the Durga
Devi vigraha are pieces of great archaeological importance which
should be preserved with great care.
VIII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We are extremely thankful to the Taramani villagers, the members
of Shri T. N. Venkatramans family, Brahmashri. Somu
Gurukal, members of Temple Samajam, Sri Gnanasekaran, Sri V.
Balasubramanian, Shri Chandrashekaran, Sri Subramanian
for providing us with the necessary information for compiling
this document. Special thanks are due to Shri M. J. Shankar
Raman for arranging meetings with Dr. Nagaswamy. We cannot
express our gratitude enough to Dr. Nagaswamy for spending
his time and giving detailed scholarly explanations. We would
like to extend special thanks to Shri D. K . Natarajan, Prof
Radhakrishnan, Prof Ajit kumar Kolar and IITM Heritage center
for providing us with some rare photos. Finally we would
like to thank our friends whose critical comments helped in
improving the quality of the document.
IX. REFERENCES
Informal interviews with people of Taramani village, namely 1)
Sri Bharathi Mudaliar (age-70) 2) Sri Thiagarajan Pillai
(age-87) 3) Sri Elumalai (age-80) 4) Sri Govindaswamy (age-80)
5) Sri Vedachalam (age- 75) 6) Sri Kodandaraman
(Age-75) 7) Sri Manavalan (age-85).
Informal interviews with present and retired-staff of IITM - 1)
Sri Thiagarajan (present staff) 2) Sri K. Venkatraman
(retired staff) 3) Prof Radhakrishnan (retired faculty - Civil
dept).
Informal interview with family members of Late Shri T.N.
Venkatraman - 1)Smt. Shantha Venkatraman (wife) 2) Shri
Vasudev (son-in-law) 3) Rama (daughter).
Informal interview with Brahmasri. Somu Gurukal.
Informal interview with Brahmasri Ramakrishna Deekshitar
(descendant of Sri Appaya Deekshitar) in Kanchipuram.
Granite commemoration stones in Jalakantheswara temple.
Sri Jalakantheswara temple Kumbhabhishekam Temple
souviner-1986.
X. REQUEST
We request the people with any extra information/photo about the
above mentioned temples to kindly contact us on our
email ids or to contact the temple samajam office in Sri
Jalakantheswara temple.
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XI. PHOTO GALLERY
In this section, we present the photographs taken during the
visit of some noted personalities such as Sri Abhinava
Theertha swamiji, Mahaperiyavaa, Puduperiyavaa and Sri
Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar Bahadur, Maharaja of Mysore to Sri
Jalakantheswara temple.
Fig. 18. Photograph taken inside Sri Jalakantheswara temple
during the visit of Sri Abhinava Vidyateertha swamiji. Also seen in
photograph are Shri Y. S.Ramaswamy, Prof Krishnamurthy and Prof E.
G. Ramachandran. (Courtesy IITM Heritage Center)
Fig. 19. Sri Abhinava Vidyateertha swamiji planting a tree in
Sri Jalakantheswara temple. Also seen in photograph are Shri Y. S.
Ramaswamy, ProfKrishnamurthy. (Courtesy IITM Heritage Center)
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Fig. 20. Mahaperiyavaa welcomed with a Poornakumbham. Also seen
are Krishnaswamy (with folded hands), Prof Krishnamurthy. (Courtesy
Sri D. K.Natarajan)
Fig. 21. Harati being performed to Mahaperiyavaa. Also seen in
the photgraph are Sri Y.S. Ramaswamy (Superintendent Engg), Sri
Krishnaswamy (withfolded hands), Prof R. Radhakrishnan (Civil Engg)
(only head is seen), Sri Ananthanarayanan (Asst Engg), Sri T R
Rajagopal (Asst Registrar). (Courtesy SriD. K. Natarajan)
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Fig. 22. Puduperiyavaa being welcomed in the IITM campus. Also
seen are - Prof Radhakrishnan and Prof Shrikantakumaraswamy.
(Courtesy Prof RRadhakrishnan)
Fig. 23. Puduperiyavaa within Sri Jalakantheswara temple
premises. Also seen are Sri Y.S.Ramaswamy, Sri Krishnaswamy and
Prof Krishnamurthy. (CourtesySri D. K. Natarajan)
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Fig. 24. Puduperiyavaa during first kumbhabhishekam of
Jalaknatheswara temple. Also seen are Mr. Krishnaswamy and Prof
Krishnamurthy. (Courtesy SriD. K. Natarajan)
Fig. 25. Puduperiyavaa planting a tree in Sri Jalakantheswara
temple. Also seen in photograph are Shri Y. S. Ramaswamy, Prof
Krishnamurthy. (CourtesyIITM Heritage center)
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Fig. 26. Puduperiyavaa in Sri Jalakantheswara temple. Also seen
in photograph are Shri Y. S. Ramaswamy, Prof Krishnamurthy.
(Courtesy IITM Heritagecenter)
Fig. 27. Photograph taken during the first kumbhabhishekam in
1965. Seen in the photograph are Prof Sengupto (Director IITM), Sri
Y. S. Ramaswamy,Prof R Radhakrishnan, Prof Krishnamurthy. (Courtesy
IITM Heritage center)
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Fig. 28. Sri Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar Bahadur, Maharaja of
Mysore in Sri Jalakantheswara temple. Also seen in the photograph
are Sri Y. S. Ramaswamyand Prof Krishnamurthy. (Courtesy IITM
Heritage center)
Fig. 29. Sri Jayachamarajendra Wodeyar Bahadur, Maharaja of
Mysore in Sri Jalakantheswara temple. Also seen in the photograph
are Sri Y. S. Ramaswamy,Prof E. G. Ramachandran, Sri S.V.
Sethunathan (Registrar), Sri T R Rajagopal (Asst. Registrar).
(Courtesy IITM Heritage center)