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A village with a past

A treasure trove lives unsung. The next time you pass Singanallur, walk into the village to learn about the city's glorious heritage

A DYING LEGACY? THE SINGANALLUR agraharam PHOTO: K. ANANTHAN

Quiz time. Which area in the city houses the oldest Indian bronze statue in the world?

Answer: Singanallur — the suburb which lies on the National Highway that connects the city to Trichy.

Today, the original Singanallur village cannot be seen from the highway but the tank in the area still stands, providing some lung space in a congested city.

The entire area is in the throes of development, with fields giving way to apartment blocks.

From the highway, take a deviation into the road leading to Vellalore and you reach the heart of Singanallur village, where the charm of the Indian village comes alive.

Its resident exude warmth and the area is cleaner than most parts of the city.

Driving past the many temples and the government school, you can see the old section of the village with its pillared row houses. Sadly, many are being replaced by concrete box structures.

Bronze statue

Now, the answer to the quiz. The Ulagalandha Perumal Temple in the village houses the officially dated world's oldest Indian bronze statue. Experts attribute it to the 8th century.

It is said that the Pandya period bronze was first brought to Vellalore and later to Singanallur to safeguard it from the invasion in Kancheepuram.

From hearsay, we can assume that the statue would have been brought to Kongunad after the 12th century.

Today, the statue is the central deity of the temple, which was built in the mid-20th century. The statue is totally bronze cast and created following the method used in the 8th century.

The presence of this statue gives our city a glory that would normally rest with places like Thanjavur, Madurai or Kancheepuram. The temple is not very old and it has recently been renovated and has a towering Raja Gopuram.

The temple priests who are also its keepers fill the visitor with the interesting story of the Lord being saved and brought to Coimbatore. Possibly, Coimbatore's well-known hospitality drew even the Lord here!

Singanallur also houses the largest and the only other Agraharam in the city besides the one in Perur.

The Perur Brahmins are Saivites and those in Singanallur Vaishnavaites. Agraharams or Brahmin settlements are found all over South India, but the best examples are found in Chola land. Even in early British records, we come across interesting references to this village.

In the 1893 Glossary of the Madras Presidency, edited by C. D. Maclean, we get to know about the status the village enjoyed then.

A grant

It talks about the existence of a town and fort that the Marathas destroyed.

The village was an inam or grant to a Brahmin by Singamma, said to be the mother of a Chola king, and 8,000 people resided there in 1893.

Today, some interesting structures exist in the agraharam, but they are fast fading and efforts must be taken to preserve at least some.

Little would anyone living in the village today know of its rich heritage as our documentation skills are poor.

Many names appear meaningless as we have no clue about the past.

Recently, news reports said an agraharam in Palakkad district is to be preserved at a cost of Rs. 1.5 crore with help from the Centre to showcase its heritage.

It is time that Coimbatore wakes up to the need for such an effort before we lose the few existing relics we have. We need to show our visitors and future generations something. Else, we will just be yet another city filled with skyscrapers.

(Send in your feedback to this column to cbemetro@thehindu.co.in with `heritage' in the subject line.)

SHANKAR VANAVARAYAR

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