Back on its wheels
T.S.SUBRAMANIAM
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With its beauty retrieved by artisans, the wooden car of Mallikeswarar Temple, Mannadi, is all set to roll after a gap of 58 years.
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Photo: K. Pichumani
: Exquisite: Sculptures on the Mallikeswarar Temple .
The majestic car of the Mallikeswarar temple, Mannadi, Chennai, with its exquisite carvings on wood on all four sides, will have its pilot run on June 22, between 9.45 a.m. and 10.45 a.m., after a gap of 58 years. It will be pulled by hundreds of devotees.
Artisans are busy restoring the car made of teak wood, to its original beauty. New figurines of horses, elephants and lions, which will be adorn the car on its four sides, are being readied. The car had fallen into disuse and over the years, its six massive wheels had rotted and the figurines had fallen apart.
Sivanadiar Seva Sangam (The Siva Devotees’ Sangh), an NGO, came forward to renew the car. The members of sangam, who are mostly local businessmen and residents, have taken up the work with the cooperation of T. Virubommu, the executive officer of the temple.
About the name
The Mallikeswarar temple is situated on Linghi Chetty Street, Mannadi, George Town, a busy commercial district of Chennai. It is a Siva temple, more than 500 years old and is called Mallikeswarar temple because the area was full of jasmine (‘malli’ in Tamil) gardens several hundred years ago.
The idol of Linga was found in one of these jasmine gardens and so he came to be called Mallikeswarar. The idol of his consort Maragathambal was also found nearby. Soon a temple was built for them.
The rajagopuram of the temple, built by a devotee in 1923, was renovated in 2003 by the Sivanadiar Seva Sangam. The rajagopuram teems with stucco figures, which were mended and painted anew before the kumbhabhishekam of the rajagopuram in 2003. The Sangam’s attention next turned to the temple car. At the vanguard of the car’s restoration works are the Sivanadiar Seva Sangam members P. Kandavel, A.N.Suresh Kumar, M.C. Balaji and P.S. Shanmuga Sundaram. They took up the re-commissioning in 2007. It is now complete.
Prof. M.A. Manickavelu, a devotee and a Tamil scholar, says the awesome part of the car is its elaborate and intricate wooden carvings.
These carvings on the four sides have depictions of Sarabeswarar, the wedding of Meenakshi and Siva, Bhikshandeswara, Bhairavar, Lingothbhavar, Gajasamharamurthy, men on horseback, Krishna playing the flute and so on.
The leitmotif among the wooden carvings in the car and the sculptures in the temple is Siva performing ‘urthuvathandavam.’ “The carvings on the car have a timeless beauty,” Prof. Manickavelu adds.
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