Sunday, July 4, 2004

Sixteen Temple Renovations Completed in Tamil Nadu



CHENNAI, INDIA, July 2, 2004: The Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) Minister, P.C. Ramasamy, today said kumbhabishekams for 16 temples would be performed as per a revised schedule, after completing the renovation work. Denying reports that kumbhabishekams for 83 temples had been postponed, he said in a statement here that fresh dates had been announced, giving adequate time for completing the ongoing renovation work, as announced by the HR and CE department earlier. Meanwhile, an official release said spiritual personalities and devotees had expressed the view that it would be ideal to conduct kumbhabishekams for temples under the purview of the HR and CE department after the completion of renovation work as per Agama rules. Though the schedule for kumbhabishekams at some temples was already announced, the department had made it clear that the ceremony would be performed as per the revised schedule, only after completing the task of desilting, cleaning and renovating temple tanks.

As per the revised schedule, the following 11 temples are allowed to perform kumbhabishekam on August 22: Ramalingaswamy temple (Shenbaganallur); Thondargal Nainar temple (Tirunelveli district); Santhiveerappan temple (Urayur); Veeraperumal Ayyanar Sastha temple (Pattapuliyur); Kailasanathar temple (Kanniyakudi); Annapoornambika Sametha Ardhanareeswarar temple (Periyapalayam); Anandeeswarar temple (Adanchur); Anandeeswarar temple (Udayakkudi); Varasakthi Vinayakar temple (Chennai-3); Iravatheeswarar temple (Darasuram); and Varasakthi Vinayakar temple (Chennai-18). Five other temples -- Karpagavinayakar temple (Pillayarpatti); Prasanna Venkatesaperumal temple (Gunaseelam); Kapaleeswarar temple (Mylapore); Marundeeswarar temple (Tiruvanmiyur); and Agatheeswarar temple (Panchatti) -- have been permitted to perform kumbhabishekams on March 17, 2005, the release said.